


Soul of the Clock

by Kanathia



Category: Fairy Tail, Harry - Fandom, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Immortality, Powerful Harry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2019-06-08 23:09:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 64,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15254115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kanathia/pseuds/Kanathia
Summary: The infinity clock was unlocked several times in its long existence. The destruction left in its wake made legends, but none who entered ever survived to tell the world about the mysterious presence within.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Oh man, such excitement. I've been writing fanfiction for years but someone finally convinced me to start transferring my stories here so I'm gonna clean them up for you guys and start the journey. I hope you all enjoy, if you read my work on fanfiction.net no worries, I'll be updating there as well.

Memory, thought, emotion. These things are all lost to the hands of time. The endless ebbing and influx of power was all that he remembered from within his dormant prison. The only thing one could feel within that place was the power that came and went from the space. It built up and then released, like clock work. Only to begin again as soon as the cycle had ended.

Dreams sustained his mind. Dreams from his human life. Dreams from those who had helped create the clock. Dreams of his past and future. It was hard to distinguish what was what unless he focused. His sense of self was weak within the vast sea of power, but he was there. Just beneath the surface he could feel the years pass. Centuries in the blink of an eye. He watched them pass through the yellow haze of the Infinity Clock. His people's wish. Their hope, embodied.

Centuries that felt both like eons and seconds came and went. And then, quite suddenly he found himself with new dreams in his midst.

They were curious dreams of a world so different it was barely recognizable as the one he hailed from. Surely the time that had passed could not have changed the world in such dramatic ways. And yet somehow it had.

Curiosity spiked in his mind at the outside world. A yearning in the back of his mind to see it all with his own eyes. But his attention turned to the one who brought these new memories. A young man. His name was unimportant. His goals were where the concern lay.

He could see within the child's mind a longing for power. A strive to destroy those that opposed him. Disapproval radiated through the ether of the clock as Harry judged the boy lacking. Such mindless violence had not been the intention of the clocks creation. It was a conduit. A final defense. Not a toy to point at whomever had irked the kid.

'What do you seek?' It was the first time in what seemed forever that Harry had used the telepathic link the clock afforded him in place of his physical body. His voice sounded distant like an echo.

He could feel the young man flinch at the question. Clearly not having expected it. Another dream of times gone past played behind the boy as he tried to orient himself in the direction Harry's voice had come from. Harry watched with disinterest as the memory showed the kid fighting someone of approximately the same age.

"Power!" the kid said determinedly. His eyes blazed with resolve.

'Destruction.' Harry amended. 'Death.'

A frown tugged at the kid's lips.

'I shall not grant that wish.'

"I didn't go through all of this to be told no!"

Power moved within the clock and Harry would have sighed had he still been inclined to such things. A draw on the clock's power caught his attention. There were wizards outside siphoning from the collected pool of his home.

"I'll do it myself." The kid said smugly, obviously intending to take control of the clock.

Anger took hold of Harry then. The strongest of any emotion he'd felt in years. He directed his attention to the wizards on the outside, unleashing a wave of pure destruction. Whatever they were attempting he would not allow. Not with the power he guarded. With the slight drain amended he turned his attention inward.

The boy seemed dumbstruck. "You were just supposed to a clock." He sounded awestruck.

Harry pushed, forcing the kid back out of the clock. Silence and familiar dreams filled the space once again. Just beyond the gem that held his clock's power he could see the boy on his knees staring at the damage Harry had caused. Buildings were flattened in the wake of the magical onslaught, people lay dead.

He almost felt a pang of remorse but it was buried beneath a wave of apathy. He had defended the clock. That was what he had been tasked with doing so long ago. It was what he would continue to do. And defend it he did. The boy was not the last to come seeking to use the clock for gain. Each was turned away like the last until finally something changed.

At the peak of one of the many influx cycles Harry felt something. From outside the clock there was a magical presence. He expected another visitor, somoene new but equally unworthy of the power hidden within his device. Something pulled at his power wrapping it around itself, but it did not take from it. It was as if someone was testing the power that surrounded the clock. Someone approached the face of his clock and he watched with patient curiosity as a middle aged man wrote runes on its pieces.

Sealing runes, he realized belatedly. He was being sealed. Was the conduit he resided in no longer a necessity? Had the need for his clock been sated? He drifted back into the ether, content to sleep again. If he was no longer necessary maybe he would simply fade before the next cycle completed itself.

It was some time before the runes were broken. Lazily he noticed someone had claimed ownership of his clock. Something he had quite a number of objections to. Still, it mattered little unless they attempted to misuse the power it held. He drifted back into slumber even as the bells tolled around him, lulled into sleep by long years of inaction.

It seemed like only moments had passed when he again stirred in his sleep. New memories once more invaded his peaceful home like dissonant notes struck out of turn in a musical piece. Harry knew what it meant. Someone had entered the ether of his clock, but for some reason the thoughts seemed different than usual. There was no power lust here, no inherent want of destruction or even the violence of protection. All he could see was fear and sadness… and hope. Harry's eyes turned from the dreams to the girl dreaming them.

He regarded her with mild curiosity. The girl was not there by choice. If she were she would already have fully submerged into the gem that held him and she would have retained her ability to move. This was a first. Why had someone forced a young girl into the clock? Did they not realize the extent of its magic? Had she been stuck there by some sort of egregious mistake? Or was it something more sinister?

She's crying. He realized belatedly. Two more figures stood just beyond his clock's gem, obviously trying to free the girl. They tugged at her arms and shouted.

'Who are you?' Harry asked, knowing the girl couldn't see him. She still faced the outside world. But she could hear him. If she could have moved he was sure she would have jumped.

'I… I…' she seemed as lost in thought as he often was and startled out of it all at the same time.

He waited patiently. Time was all he had anymore, it made patience come easily.

'L-Lucy… my name is Lucy.' She finally managed. 'Who are you?'

'What do you desire?' he asked instead of answering.

'Desire?' she responded nonplussed.

"A seal has fallen. Only two seals remain." Her distorted voice echoed from outside of the gem.

'You are fusing with my clock.' Harry said simply and with a tinge of confusion. The other wizards had entered, yes, but they hadn't tried to fuse with the magic itself. It was tantamount to becoming one with it. She would become a part of the clock's ether, much like Harry had. Did she think she would be able to control the clock if she fused with it? 

'I don't want to.' She sounded almost defeated. That answered that question he supposed.

And at that moment she was enveloped completely by the gem, melting into its golden embrace. But as they came face to face she seemed confused even with her nearly impassive face.

'If you aren't careful, you'll lose yourself in here.' He told her honestly. 'Your mind and resolve will be consumed by the ether.' If someone had put her in here to try and control the clock they hadn't accounted for the ether destroying her personality. It had nearly consumed him all those years ago too, only his drive to make the world better saving him from complete dissolution. It had been long enough since he'd last been sought that chances were they hadn't accounted for him being in the clock either. He wouldn't allow a new persona more control than he had.

'How are you here? Who are you?' she asked without talking, voice echoing through the amber nothing much like his did. Her face was frozen in a blank, emotionless slate.

Harry regarded the girl with sympathy. 'I am one of the creators of this clock. I guide its power and protect its legacy. Why have you entered this place? What do you seek?'

'I…' she seemed at a loss for words. 'I just want to help my friends. I don't want to watch them get hurt in front of me… because of me.'

'You are not the one who broke the seal.' Harry said, realizing that meant someone else outside had probably started this.

'No,' she agreed, 'That was the Neo Oraceon Seis. They're fighting my friends right now.'

'Your friends…' Harry repeated, a spark of remembrance from long ago replaying a small memory of a red headed boy. 'What is their goal?'

That seemed to confuse her. 'To stop the Oraceon Seis and save me.'

Harry turned his attention outside of the gem and saw beyond the two who stood at its surface. Near the center of the room stood a man with long black hair. Beyond him was a young boy and a white haired man who seemed to be staring at a swirling vortex of black.

"Lucy!"

Harry's eyes traveled back to the small figure in front of his gem. A bright blue cat had hit the gem and looked relatively close to tears.

'Your friends are calling to you.'

'Yes,' Lucy replied almost distantly.

Harry looked back at her. She was losing herself to the ether. It was interesting to see from his end. He imagined this must have been what he looked like all those years ago before he found his will to live on.

'I want… to help them.' She said dreamily. He smiled just a bit at that even as she lost some of her solidity. Perhaps this once he could grant someone's wish. A last favor to the girl as she lost herself.

'I will grant that wish.' Harry replied for the first time since his conduits creation. He placed a hand on the girl's shoulder and was almost surprised he could. He'd forgotten he even had limbs he spent so long in the ether.

'I can't keep crying.' Lucy said meeting his eyes now and surprising him. She was moving, that was good. She was overcoming the influence of the ether. "I have to help my friends."

'Then we shall warp the dreams of their enemies.' Harry pushed out with the magic all around them until it struck its intended target. He let Lucy's magic and memories guide his actions so it would strike the correct person.

Immediately the man gripped his head and started ranting about nightmares. And in the chaos Harry watched as a pink haired boy smashed through the vortex he'd seen minutes before.

"Was that Lucy?" the young girl in front of his gem asked, confusion in her voice.

"I heard her too." Said the cat.

Harry turned inward again. Lucy was by his side, watching. Her eyebrows knit in concern as the pink haired boy delivered a strong punch to the man who'd been struck by Harry's magic and they watched together as he fell.

'Well he's taken care of.' Lucy thought with relief the sound echoing through the ether.

"Lucy's gone!" the small cat that had spoken before was tearing up now. "We're too late."

"Gone?" Lucy said with confusion, hand reaching out to touch the gem. "I'm right here."

"Whoa. I just heard her again." The pink haired boy exclaimed, lifting his nose to the air. "Where is she?"

'They cannot see your true form. You have merged with the ether.' Harry supplied. 'I have granted you access to our power.'

Lucy whipped in his direction, eyes wide. "I don't want that."

'It is yours, nonetheless.'

"Lucy?" the pink haired boy said again. "Where are you? Who are you talking to? It smells like you're all around us."

Lucy looked on the verge of tears. "What do I do? I don't want to end the world." she pleaded with Harry.

"Yeah, don't end the world Lucy. That'd be a real bummer." Another voice joined the fray and Lucy could see all of her friends now, even the ones fighting just outside of the clocks true form. They appeared as if on monitors, floating in the nothing that surrounded her. Gray had spoken that last statement.

'The Infinity Clock was not designed to end the world.' Harry said simply.

"I thought the clock was supposed to bring chaos." She said with uncertainty.

Harry blinked long and slow as dreams of destruction filled the ether around them. Dreams of renewal and creation blotted them out quickly. 'Power is directed by intent Lucy Heartfilia. Chaos comes for those who seek chaos. But hope and creation come for those who seek such things.'

She glanced back to where she could see her friends. All of them had fought hard and long to free her, and despite having won their fights she was still here. Still now some of them were trying to sever the chains that held the Infinity Clock tethered to the ground.

"So right now I'm…"

'You are one with the Infinity Clock. You are part of its directive.'

"I'm the Clock!?"

He just nodded as a murmuring from her friends started up.

"Lucy!" Erza's voice broke through the noise. "Can you hear me?"

"Erza, yes I can hear you." She said turning to the small depiction of Erza floating near the stone's face.

"Whatever's happening, you can't let yourself be manipulated. The power will most likely try to corrupt you. Can you find a way to get free?"

"Maybe we can just smash the lacrima!" the pink haired boy's voice rose, and his fist was engulfed in a halo of fire.

Harry's eyes traveled to the boy and with a flick of his finger a jolt of magic leapt form the gem and struck him in the shoulder, throwing him back none too gently. He tumbled head over heel about forty feet before coming to a rest in a disheveled heap.

"Natsu!" Lucy yelled, concerned.

"Ow! What the hell Lucy! You said you were in control of this thing, right? Why'd you do that?" 'Natsu' cried out as he sat up.

"I didn't!" she objected before turning uncertain eyes to Harry who hovered behind her. 

'My primary objective is to protect the power of the Infinity Clock and the clock itself.' Harry's eyes left the pink haired boy and went to Lucy. 'I cannot allow the gem to be destroyed. It is the center of the clock. If broken it would release unrivaled destruction.'

Lucy swallowed a lump in her throat. "Um… Natsu… don't do that again… kay?"

Natsu mumbled as he stood back up and marched back to the gem.

Harry stared at the girl as she in turn glanced worriedly at the people shown in the gem's mirror. 'Is your dream fulfilled?' he asked her blankly. This was one of the longer moments he'd had to interact with someone for. It was somewhat draining. Though curiosity buzzed at the back of his kull about what it would be like to have a companion in the ether after all this time.

"My dream?" she said turning her attention back to him.

'You dreamed of helping your friends.' He clarified. 'Is your dream fulfilled?'

She nodded hesitantly. "But I… I still want to get back to them. I'd like to go back to normal."

Harry stared at her for the longest time without saying a word. It was unnerving to her and she shifted under the piercing gaze. 'Such a dream… is hard to fulfill.'

"What?" she wanted to cry. Was she stuck like this?

'You have bonded with the ether.' Harry supplied. 'Much like I did upon the conduits creation. Such magic should not be done lightly.'

"I didn't want to do it at all!" She said vehemently, tears in her eyes. Why should she have to pay the price for someone else's choice?

Harry processed that for a moment before his eyes slowly drifted back to the clock face where her friends were arguing about the best way to get Lucy back. It sparked memories he'd long since stopped thinking about. Memories of friends long dead and the bonds they'd held. He wondered if these people shared similar bonds. Surely they'd do something stupid to get her back if so. Thoughts of a particular bushy haired girl from back then triggered a thought that could help this young girl in front of him. 'Tell me, does the world still lie on the brink of destruction?'

"What?" she asked with confusion.

'For eons the clock has slept. Is it necessary any longer?'

"I don't understand."

"Lucy what's going on?" Natsu asked, laying a hand against the gem stone tentatively.

"Lucy, is everything okay?" Erza's voice filtered in.

'Your confusion tells me my purpose is no longer known.' Harry said closing his eyes. 'It's answer enough.'

"I don't understand the question though." Lucy ignored Natsu and Erza and focused on the excessively confusing man before her. Had they been wrong about the Infinity Clock? Was it supposed to protect people? Did it have some specific purpose that had been lost to history?

'I shall grant your dreams Lucy Heartfilia.' Harry's eyes snapped open with a focus she hadn't really seen there until now. They were almost haunting to look at and Lucy immediately felt a shift in the 'ether' as the man had continuously referred to it. It began to heat up til it felt like she was sitting in a sauna.

She could hear her friends shouting things, sometimes her name and other times just random things, and as the heat rose she could swear she felt them running along her skin as if she were the clock itself.

'You are freed Lucy.' She heard as no more than a whisper. She opened her eyes, not entirely sure when she'd closed them. She was falling and there was the man drifting away from her as she plummeted. He seemed serene now in the still night air. Like a dream himself floating above the tree line with that familiar amber glow around him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Slowly, ever so slowly he cracked open his eyes. Immediately he shut them again as a blinding light glared into them. He tried again opening just one and allowing it to adjust before the other followed. Leaves danced on a branch inches from his face. They were interesting to watch in their mindless waving. It had been a long time since he'd seen anything of the sort.

He paused. Why had it been a long time since he'd seen leaves? The clock. Of course. He closed his eyes but he could not feel the familiar and comforting presence of the ether. He glanced around. A forest spread around him, serene and colorful in a way the amber ether had never allowed him to experience the dreams of his past. Everything had been sepia toned and bleak there.

He reached out and pinched one of the leaves between his forefinger and thumb. It was smooth and yet wonderfully real beneath his fingers. His eyes focused on his hand. It had been a long time since he'd really noticed his body. So long since he'd really had sensations. It's was overwhelming in its intensity.

He could feel the branch he'd woken on digging into his back and the air caressing his skin. It was all so… different.

Harry pushed himself up, marveling in the feel of muscle beneath skin. He'd always sort of just… drifted in the ether. He flexed his calves and looked down. He was several feet from the forest floor but he paid that fact little mind. He pushed himself from the branch and immediately landed as a crumpled mess at the base of the tree.

It took him a moment to orientate himself, but when he did he felt a smile tugging at his lips. It seemed he'd have to get used to the physical world again. Maybe it was a good thing no one seemed to be around to notice his numerous blunders. Perhaps that went double seeing as the clothing he had been wearing for eons seemed to have not held up so well now that he had re-entered the physical world. It was patchy at best and just barely covered anything he didn't want showing in polite company.

He forced himself to his feet just a tad wobbly. He glanced into the sky this time, clear of the tree. Above the tree tops stretched a mountain and the remnants of a large fractured chain rested upon its face. Harry felt a pang of remorse. He had destroyed his clock. His home.

But above those ruins he saw something that gave him hope. Streaking through the bluest sky he could ever remember seeing were lines of white and pink. Ley lines. The clock had done its job ten fold. It had restored the waning magic of Earth.

He sent out a simple prayer and thanks to his friends long past. He would carry their legacy into this world. And he would start by finding a new pair of pants.


	2. New Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry meets some people, does some sort of illegal stuff, and starts a new life in Earthland.

Master Makarov very rarely focused his attention on any one guild member unless they were being obnoxious, as Natsu usually was. So Lucy found it unsettling just how often the old man kept glancing her way over the last few hours. She'd been caught up in the celebrating the moment she'd returned to the guild hall but now the revelry was dying down and she was feeling the weight of the stare more and more even as she watched Natsu and Gray go at it as usual.

"Lucy." Erza was by her side, offering a small smile. "I'm glad to see you're doing okay. You had us all worried."

Lucy smiled at the red head. When Erza wasn't acting like a complete lunatic Lucy actually quite liked her. Well, it was possible she liked her when she was being a lunatic too. She did agree the woman was downright scary when she was fired up though. Lucy was happy she hadn't been on the receiving end of that fury in a long while. Then again, with people like Natsu destroying stuff every few days it was easy to let the heat fall on him naturally.

"I was wondering if we might talk in private for a few moments." Erza continued belying the fact that she'd come over to do more than just exchange pleasantries.

"Uh, sure." Lucy conceded, setting down her glass and following the armor clad woman from the room.

Erza led her outside and around back. "We had a few questions about what happened while you were within the Infinity Clock."

Cutting right to the point as usual, Lucy thought with a tinge of exasperation. "We?"

"Yes, I asked Erza to pull you out here." Makarov said walking ever so slowly to join them. His wizened eyes twinkled in the mid afternoon sun.

"We're concerned." Erza said, crossing her arms. "Everyone could hear you talking to someone but no one could hear or see who it was."

"Oh yeah." Lucy titled her head to the side. "There was a guy there."

"A guy?" Erza tensed minutely. She seemed almost ready to pull her sword despite there being no imminent threat. As if she could slice through the memory of the man Lucy had met.

"Yeah. Scrawny looking, weird eyes. He said he was the keeper of the clock or something like that. He kind of talked in riddles."

"Did he want anything from you?" Makarov asked quite seriously. The grandfatherly smile was gone, replaced with a serious expression that he wore only when things could be urgently wrong. It did little to settle her unease with the impromptu questioning.

"No… um. He talked about dreams a lot. I wasn't really sure what to make of him. He didn't seem bad."

Erza was frowning and appeared to be weighing what Lucy had told them. "Master?" she asked finally.

Makarov sighed. "I suppose for now we shall have to keep an eye on everything. You're certain he didn't ask you for anything? To take something with you or give something up."

Lucy blinked and shook her head. "Nope."

The smile returned. "Good then. I'm sorry to have worried you. Why don't you go back to the party? They can't celebrate without the lady of the hour can they?"

Lucy gave him a concerned glance as she passed.

"Why was it so important to know if he asked her for anything?" Erza asked once she was sure the girl was out of earshot.

Makarov rubbed his face. Old age was really starting to limit his ability to keep up a cheerful demeanor. "There are some magics in this world darker than even those held by Zeref. They feed on the life of the caster until there is nothing left. I'm afraid if Lucy made a contract with the clock she may not remain the Lucy we know for much longer."

"She seems adamant that she traded nothing." Erza countered. "And the clock is gone now isn't it?"

"Sometimes people aren't entirely sure of what they're sacrificing. And the clock is not gone. It's empty. It scattered into six pieces again, but whatever power it once held is gone. Only time will tell whether or not that will prove to be fortuitous."

XXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

He bit into the apple in his hand and marveled at the feeling of the food sliding down his throat. Sustenance wasn't something he was used to having to procure. It was almost novel after so long. He'd acquired pants and a few rations of food from a cabin he'd stumbled across. He wasn't entirely sure whether someone still lived there so as compensation he fixed a few of the more run down items in the house. Hopefully whoever he'd taken the food from didn't need it more than he did.

The pants were ill fitting and a murky brown color but at least they did their job. He'd have to get better clothes when he stumbled across a town. Through all of his scavenging he had a strange tugging in the back of his mind. Just one name kept popping up. Lucy.

She was the only person he'd technically met in this new age. Or at least the only one he'd met within this cycle, and therefore the only one who was still breathing. Perhaps he could get a few pointers about how this world worked if he found the girl. At the very least the girl had to live near a town. He picked up a stick and held it in the palm of his hand.

"Point me, Lucy Heartfilia." He said with a gruff, unused voice. He'd have to work on talking a bit so he didn't scare anyone he tried to talk to in the near future. He'd gotten so used to telepathic communication with anyone who entered his clock that he'd neglected even those few chances he had to stretch the chords with casual conversation.

The stick spun for a long moment before settling with the narrower end pointing somewhere off to the right.

Harry smiled lightly, glad to see his old spell still worked.

Several days of walking had turned out to get him no closer to his destination. Either his point me spell was broken or he was very, very far away from Lucy Heartfilia. Unfortunately his simple 'point me' spells wouldn't work either. For some reason the only point mes that actually stopped spinning were when he asked for Lucy or a specific direction like North, but not knowing where he was or where anything was actually located meant that directional spells were essentially useless to him.

His biggest boon seemed to be that the abundance of magic meant he didn't need a focus, or perhaps it was the sheer amount of time he'd spent inside of a magical focus that left him without the need of one. He'd thankfully run across a stream and managed to make a container from a rock with a small bit of concentration so he could bring some water with him, but food still seemed a bit out of his grasp. And he was ravenous. Apparently his body was trying to make up for being locked in stasis within the ether. Despite trying to ration his food he'd run out within two days and he'd had to cook any spare animal he ran across to compensate. He didn't feel great about leaving a trail of carcasses in his wake.

Something moved in the distance and Harry turned to see what it was. He was greeted by the sight of an older woman sporting the brightest pink hair he'd ever seen. He blinked a few times, not quite comprehending the sight. Was pink a normal hair color these days? The boy who'd been with Lucy had had pink hair as well. Still, hair color aside, this woman was the first person he'd run across since being removed from the ether. Gaining some directions, and hopefully food, would be beneficial.

He moved closer to where he'd seen her pass through the trees only to stumble on an odd site. A massive tree was growing in a small clearing and windows and a door were placed around its girth. It was quite literally a tree house. 

"Who are you?"

Harry turned his attention to the woman he'd seen just a minute or two before. She was older than she'd appeared at first sight and wearing weird robes that flared out at the top. He'd seen some curious style choices by wizards in the past but he had to admit that the woman's robe…cloak thing was definitely near the top of the oddities list. Maybe she just had a gaudy sense of style.

He must not have answered fast enough because she immediately looked irritated. "If you're going to just stand there, then leave." She said in a huff and turned away, obviously heading towards the door to the odd tree home.

"I apologize." Harry finally found his voice. His head tilted to the side as he surveyed the woman in front of him. "I'm not used to dealing with people anymore. Was I being rude?"

She turned back slightly, giving him a scrutinizing look. Eventually she let out a hefty sigh before turning back toward her home. "I suppose you should come in."

Harry blinked. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but he's couldn't ask her why she had invited him in as she had already entered the abode and left the door ajar for him to follow. Follow he did, even if it was primarily out of curiosity. He shut the door behind himself.

The pink haired woman was bustling about with… a teapot. Harry recognized it instantly. He'd never been particularly fond of tea, but nostalgia kept him from saying it wasn't necessary. She sat a kettle on the stove and turned back to him.

Her arms crossed over her chest as she surveyed him. Her eyes were cold and analytical. "I suppose I'll ask again. Who are you?"

"My name…" Harry paused, blinked, then remembered. "is Harry."

"That's not precisely what I meant." She countered.

Harry shrugged. "It's the only answer I can give."

She glared at that but removed the kettle from the stove and poured it into the pot in front of her. A deep frown tugged at her lips.

Harry's stomach rumbled. Immediately a sheepish look crept over his face as her intense red eyes shifted back to him. "I suppose I have to feed you too?"

Harry blinked but didn't answer. He had the feeling that despite her harsh attitude the woman was quite nice. and despite the statement he hadn't actually asked her to do anything for him at all. Instead he asked a question. "Might I know your name as well?" he said accepting the cup the woman offered.

She stared him down like he'd offended her just by asking. "Porlyusica." She eventually admitted.

"Porlyusica." Harry tested the sound on his lips. "I've never heard that name before. It's very unique…. I like it."

"I wasn't asking for your approval." She said setting her teapot off to the side and instead seemed to rummage through a cabinet.

Harry shrugged. His eyes roved around the small abode, taking in the little details. Lots of small vials containing multicolored liquids. "Are you a chemist?" he asked as she set bread down in the center of the table. He saw her hand twitch.

There was a guarded look on her old face. "What makes you ask that?"

Harry nodded at the table filled with equipment. "You have a lot of herbal remedies as well. I think I see Arnica."

"You have a surprising knowledge base. Most people don't know tea leaves from wolf's bane."

Harry took the bread he was offered and immediately shoved a sizeable portion in his mouth. This earned a scowl from Porlyusica.

"Most people would assume I was brewing potions."

Harry's eyes drifted to the vials again. He swallowed the bread before shaking his head. "I'm familiar with potions. Those aren't potions. Or at least none I've ever heard of."

Some of the tension in the woman's frame eased at that admittance. Harry wasn't entirely sure of the reasons but he had no complaints.

"Why were you wandering the woods without provisions?"

Harry paused and turned back to Porlyusica. She was eyeing him with curiosity and more than a hint of skepticism. "I'm a bit lost at the moment." He admitted. "I was just trying to find a town."

"You're lucky you stumbled upon my home I suppose." The woman said with a huff that clearly said she hadn't been lucky by him finding her. "The woods you were wandering through extend quite a ways. You could have starved to death without finding a town."

"I see." Harry frowned just slightly as he took another sip of the tea in his hand. He shoved a large piece of bread into his mouth once more and gave her a warm smile. "Thank you." He said around the bite.

She scowled. "Your table manners leave a lot to be desired."

Harry ignored the insult and scarfed down more bread. He really was hungry.

"Porlyusic…" the door banged open and an exuberant voice sounded out in greeting only to falter just partway into the old woman's name.

"Makarov." The old woman glared as Harry turned to see the person that had nearly made him choke on bread. "I told you to knock."

Standing in the doorway was perhaps one of the shortest men Harry had ever seen dressed in a cape. He had a slowly falling smile plastered on his face. As Harry turned and watched the smile turned to a more serious expression for just a moment before coming back a bit too quickly. "You have company!" the man, Makarov said with high energy.

"I do!" Porlyusica snapped. "So go annoy someone else. One human is more than enough for a day."

Makarov gave her a knowing smile before turning his attention back to her guest. Harry saw his eyes darken minutely and blinked. This man saw Harry as a threat. Harry could tell just by reading his body language. But Harry couldn't fathom the reasoning behind the man's hostility. He'd done nothing to suggest he was a threat.

Still, Harry didn't care for the look the old man was giving him. His own body tensed as he surveyed the man. He set down the bread he'd been eating but smiled amicably. "Makarov was it?" he asked.

"Makarov it was my boy." The old man laughed. "And who might you be?"

Harry blinked. "Just a traveler passing through." He answered honestly. "Miss Porlyusica was kind enough to offer me sustenance."

Harry stood and he saw Makarov's hand twitch as though he wanted to grab something.

"I suppose I'll be on my way though. I've taken enough of her time and hospitality, and I'd hate to interrupt whatever meeting the two of you had." He offered them a smile, more genuine this time as his eyes fell on the woman. "Thank you for the food."

Harry showed himself to the door and let out a sigh as it closed behind him.

"Is there a reason you're here?" Porlyusica asked, clearing the dishes from her earlier guest.

Makarov was unusually tense and she had a feeling it was because of something the boy who'd just been here had done.

The old man turned to her and almost seemed to be assessing her. "That boy…" he started and then sighed heavily. "He had the oddest magical presence I've ever felt."

Porlyusica's eyes traveled to the door the boy had exited through. Sensing magic had never been something she could do. She supposed that came with the package of being from Edolas. Her world hadn't been imbued with magic like this world was. She supposed that was what led to her shortcomings in the field. Still, if she had to hazard a guess she would have thought that boy had come from some place very like Edolas. His first thought upon seeing her vials had been to ask if she were a chemist instead of some sort of potion master. That wasn't something wizards generally tended to ask.

She said nothing as she went about cleaning. Perhaps if she didn't talk to Makarov he would decide he had better things to do.

"It was strange, but familiar." Makarov muttered mostly to himself, but Porlyusica pondered the the oddity of the man as well.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Harry had left Porlyusica's house in a hurry. Such a hurry that he hadn't actually asked her which way he should go. He stared at the thinning trees and heaved a sigh of relief as he spotted buildings in the distance. Apparently he'd chosen correctly.

He watched the people bustle about in the streets ahead of him. What were the chances he could magic up the right kind of money to buy himself a hotel room for the night? Did they even have hotels in this town? Were hotels still a thing? He supposed he'd find out.

His eyes surveyed the crowd and he fell in step behind a couple who seemed to be grocery shopping. The man was carrying a bag with carrot leaves poking from the top. He followed them into another shop and immediately felt his face gather color as he realized he'd stepped straight into a café with the most scantily clad women he'd ever seen.

He edged his way back toward the door and nearly bolted as soon as he was through it. He put a hand to his chest and tried to breathe deeply to bring his heart rate back down. Why in the world was a cute looking couple like that walking into that… place?

He picked a different person. An old woman was tottering down the street with a cane. She stopped in front of a grocery store and Harry figured he'd be spared another similar embarrassment if he just followed someone of her age. Surely she wouldn't wander into a strip joint in the back of the grocery store.

He just needed to get a good look at the currency here so he could make a replica. Then he'd be set. Sure, it was most likely illegal. It had been illegal back when the ministry of magic had still been around for sure. But those killjoys were gone by now and he was in a bit of a pinch anyway.

After a few minutes near the vegetables and fish section the woman he was following headed toward a small stand off to the side. A young man greeted her with a smile.

Harry grabbed a loaf of bread and followed. He watched the transaction with calculating eyes until, finally, the woman pulled out some bills. That was what he'd been waiting for. He memorized every detail he could as they were exchanged. Then he put his hand in his pocket and focused.

"I can help you now if you're ready." The young man at the counter gave him a curious but friendly smile. Harry returned it before setting down the bread. "Is that all for you? It's going to be one hundred and fifty jewel."

Harry withdrew his hand and looked at the small stack of bills he'd produced. He withdrew the top one, marked ten thousand, and handed it to the boy.

"I've never seen you in here before." The boy admitted as he counted out change. "Are you new to town?"

"You could say that." Harry agreed. "You wouldn't happen to know where I could find a hotel for the night, would you?"

"Of course. Back down this street to your left. You'll see one right across from the Cathedral."

"Thank you." Harry offered a smile again as he retrieved his change and bread. He departed with a frown. "Cathedral, hmm?"

XXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Harry stretched in the morning sunlight. He'd spent nearly two weeks wandering about the town he'd now learned was called Magnolia. A lot had changed since he'd been placed in the clock. So much so that the world was hardly recognizable. He watched a few children running after each other down the street. His eyes softened. Some things hadn't changed. Children were still children.

He shifted the bag on his back. He'd gathered some essentials since he'd arrived in Magnolia. The bag had enough food and water to last him months thanks to some stasis charms and an extension charm. He also found some properly fitting clothes. He thought it was sort of funny that the only thing the shop he'd visited sold in his size was in Slytherin colors. He'd long since lost his hate for the house so he just thanked his lucky stars he hadn't had to try altering them with magic. That was a fine tuned sort of magic he'd never really used in the past. He was more likely to shred them than get them to fit right. He liked the emerald green waistcoat anyway.

He'd made a small stash of other necessary items too, but he was stuck with a question. Should he stay in Magnolia and start a new life there or should he travel? Magnolia was a perfectly apt little town to try to start a life in. He'd learned that there were several magical 'guilds' both in Magnolia and the surrounding towns.

But Harry had the traveling itch. This world was new to him in so many ways. He wanted to experience it. He wanted to meet the people that had inherited the world he used to live in.

So he heaved a sigh and looked at the sunrise showing on the edge of town. He would come back here. Magnolia was where his journey would begin. The town of beginnings. He smiled as he made that promise to himself. He would be back.


	3. A New World Discovered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Harry meets some more Fairy Tail members but he doesn't know they're connected to Lucy yet.

"Disgusting." Harry spat again, his face screwed up in utter distaste. He'd run across some fish that were flying through the air and decided he should catch a few to bolster his food supply. He'd been mistaken though. These clearly weren't edible. He'd never had anything in his mouth that tasted less like food and he'd landed in a dung heap more than once in his long life.

He glanced to his right and watched the ocean waves roll in. It was getting late now. Hence his attempt at making a dinner. He figured he should probably head for shelter. He could spend the night outdoors if he was pushed to it, but Earth had a lot more volatile magical creatures than he remembered from his time. He didn't much want to wake up to a vulcan trying to stomp him flat again. There was some sort of resort nearby if he'd heard the young girls he'd passed earlier correctly. He'd try to find that. And, failing that, the cliffs looked like they probably housed a few relatively large caves. He could probably set up camp in one of those if nothing else. At least with a cave he could set some warding spells. It was harder to do that out in the open.

He pushed himself to his feet and brushed sand from his pants. Just a minute or two of walking proved to be enough as he could see some structures ahead even as the sun began to set. He picked up pace hoping to reach the resort before it was truly dark.

He heard a crunch and the pit of his stomach fell moments before he did. The edge of the cliff gave way and he tumbled down its rocky face to the thankfully somewhat soft sand below. Aching somewhat he stood from his less than graceful descent.

"Ow, ow, ow." He muttered, lifting his face from the sand and spitting the grit from his mouth. He moved to size up how hard it would be to climb back up the hill but instead he was greeted by a fairly unexpected sight. A young couple were kneeling in the sand. The boy was straddling the girl and they looked like they were about to kiss moments before his ungraceful interruption.

"Ah…" his eyes shot wide as he tried to think of something to say. "I… I'm sorry…. I'll just… um…" as he apologized he inched away from the couple and toward a path he could see that led back up.

Instantly the two darted away from each other, both blushing furiously.

"It's fine. You did nothing wrong." The man said, because Harry could see now that he was quite a bit older than the girl. Harry faltered, eyes narrowing just marginally.

The girl stood and faced him. She seemed to be putting what was happening a second ago behind her. "Are you alright?" she asked very seriously. "You took quite a fall."

"Ahahaha…." Harry rubbed his head and winced as his fingers brushed against a small scrape. "I'll be fine."

"There's no sense lying." Clearly she'd seen the wince. She shoved him down into a seated position and did her best to examine his head in the waning light.

"S-strong." He muttered eying her deceptively lithe body. Still, he caught her hand. "It's fine. Really. You needn't concern yourself."

He stood and she gave him a strange look. "If you're sure." He had the feeling that if he'd known her better he wouldn't have been able to dismiss her so easily.

"Are you staying at the resort?" Harry asked glancing behind her. "I'd hate for you to walk back on your own and your boyfriend seems to have disappeared."

"B-Boyfriend?!" she asked, face flaming suddenly. "H-he's not… he wasn't…"

"Ah…" Harry frowned. "I'm sorry. I misjudged the situation."

"It's…" she cleared her throat and seemed to pull back her air of calm. "It's fine. And yes, I'm staying at the resort."

"Would you care to escort me then?" Harry offered a smile. She was clearly the type who didn't warm to people implying she was weak. "I'm not entirely sure of the way."

She gave him a measuring look. "Were you just wandering in this late at night?"

Harry laughed as they started to walk, but it was a nervous sort of laugh. "Unfortunately yes. I got delayed in the forest on the way here. It took up more time than I thought it would."

"The forest?" she asked looking back to where she could just barely see the outline of the forest. "You walked here? Why not take the train?"

Harry just smiled but didn't really offer any explanation. He could have taken the train but honestly it felt good to do stuff with his own two feet again. Besides, trains cost money and while he had started to save a bit of cash up from odd jobs and such he'd much rather spend it on lodgings and food. "Oh." Harry stopped and the girl stopped too, giving him an irritated look. "I never asked your name."

She smiled a bit at that. "Erza." She replied. "Erza Scarlet. And you are?"

"Harry." He offered her a hand and they shook. "Were you out here for a reason Erza?"

"My team and I-"

"Erza!" A distinctly feminine voice broke up their conversation.

They both turned to see a petite girl with long pink hair approaching. She stopped short when she saw Erza was with someone. "Oh… uh… hey, just came to say Jelal showed back up. Ultear wanted to know if you wanted her to do the spell on you too." The girl said with an unsure smile, looking between the two.

"Where's everyone else?" Erza asked glancing around.

"Ahah… kinda indisposed." She said eying the man with Erza uncomfortably. He didn't feel right to her.

"Right. Lead the way." Erza turned to Harry and offered an apologetic look. "Perhaps we'll meet again before we leave."

"Perhaps." Harry agreed with a small smile. He watched their retreating backs with a frown. Erza's voice was familiar, but he couldn't place why. And that girl had eyed him like he was a snake poised to strike. She wasn't the first to treat him with open suspicion like that either. It seemed anyone particularly in tune with magical signatures seemed to sense something off about his.

He sighed again. He'd best get around to reception to see if they had any openings. Otherwise he'd have to make his way back to the beach and settle in there.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Harry stared at the sky and sighed. Months he'd been traveling now and he'd learned a lot about the world he had helped create. He'd only left Fiore once or twice, and even then only because he didn't have any particular care for boundaries. The borders between countries were surprisingly unprotected. He'd wandered into and out of some country to the North without even realizing it until some villagers had pointed it out.

Still, for now Harry was content to say that his wanderlust was mostly sated. He'd intended to go back to Magnolia but instead his feet had led him here. Crocus, the capital of Fiore. Harry had to admit it was certainly beautiful. Flowers dotted the numerous streets and people lined up at shops. It was one of the biggest hubs of civilization he'd stumbled upon since coming out of the clock. And yet, despite being larger than most cities in Fiore, Crocus was still a fraction of the size of the cities he remembered. London was easily three times as large, and it was still strange not to run across high rises.

His eyes traveled across the fluffy white clouds, then down to the throngs of people milling through the crowded city streets. But this world was healthier without a doubt. He could feel it in the air. Earthland, as Earth had been renamed, was abuzz with life in a way its predecessor never had been. Everything seemed more vibrant. Even the people seemed to be more interested in living.

Harry passed a stand selling something on a stick so he bought one and continued on his tour of the capital. He could feel the crowds starting to thin as people chattered excitedly about the tournament being held in just a few hours time.

The Grand Magic Games were half the reason he decided to put off his return trip to Magnolia. He'd been reasonably close to Crocus when he'd heard some villagers talking about the annual competition. He'd run across a few stray uses of magic in his travel but he hadn't, in all honesty, seen too much of what it could do now.

He'd heard about guilds for sure. But he hadn't really gotten a chance to watch any of a guild's members showing their stuff. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't interested in seeing how magic had evolved. He had a few stray memories from the clock. He remembered Lucy using small, delicate looking keys to summon beings of immense power to aid her. He had to wonder if they functioned like wands had in the past.

He stopped as he reached a set of gates. They were open to the public but two men in full regalia stood to each side surveying the comings and goings of the people who passed. In front of him stretched an elaborate hedge maze and near the center he could make out the jutting tower of the capital building. Or was it some sort of palace? Harry wasn't sure. He hadn't actually thought to look into politics here in Fiore. Were they a democracy? Monarchy?

It didn't matter much to him.

He passed the guards, earning a wary side stare from the one he'd been standing near. He ignored the look and took in the multicolored flowers dotted here and there along the path. The maze was immaculately clean and the plant life almost seemed artificial in its upkeep. He passed a young girl walking along the path with a cat that was wearing a dress. Harry had to force himself not to gawk.

He was still getting used to the fact that there were animals in this world that were every bit as intelligent and sapient as humans. Even odd human animal hybrids that people treated as everyday citizens though to Harry it raised a lot of curious but inappropriate questions about conception. He continued on his way, observing a small garden to his left. Tea tables were scattered about it. They all gleamed white in a way that suggested to Harry they were probably being kept clean by magic. Harry took a seat at one of the tables and adjusted his bag next to him. He pulled out a tablet and carefully etched onto the paper a drawing of the courtyard.

He wasn't particularly good at sketching if he were being honest. But put the memories down in hard print relaxed him. It was soothing and made him feel content in a way he hadn't really felt since leaving the clock. It felt like he was documenting the places he went for the people in his past who would never get to see them.

"This is the world we helped create." He said to no one, looking up towards the tops of the hedges where he could just see the waning sunlight starting to peter out. "It's a strange, but amazing place guys."

He wished that his friends could have lived to see this place. To see Fiore, and Earthland. The result of their sacrifice. His sacrifice. It was amazing in so many little ways. He closed the notepad and stowed it back in his bag. Solemn eyes gazed down at the bag. They were dead long before he entered the clock. If they hadn't been he doubted he would have been allowed to take up that mantle.

He was happy though. Happy to see that their work had brought about such a beautiful, vibrant world that mostly seemed to be at peace.

He stood, slinging the pack back onto his back. He wasn't sure if there was some sort of curfew for the gardens but surely it would be soon if there was one. He made his way back to the long winding path that wove through the hedges. He blinked.

He looked left, then right before a sense of trepidation settled in the pit of his stomach.

"I have no idea where I am." He muttered to himself.

The hedges were indeed a maze. He hadn't paid enough attention to where he'd been going before he stumbled on the table garden. He couldn't retrace his steps and they didn't have any signs out that could point him in the right direction. He glanced at the top of the hedge. He could try looking from up there but he had a feeling they weren't really grown to support weight.

"I might be sleeping in a maze tonight." He allowed himself to sulk at the thought. He'd slept in stranger places though. And he could always sleep on one of the tabl… He turned around. He hadn't been paying attention to where he was going again. The table garden was nowhere to be seen. Only dark green hedges stretched on either side of him.

It reminded him eerily of a tournament he himself had taken part in what felt like ages ago. He trudged on with a disconsolate sigh. An opening could be seen to his right and he hurried along.

A lamp was the first thing he saw and he was happy to see it was on and functioning. He'd long since lost daylight and even with the tower hovering in the background providing sparse light he found it harder to navigate the maze in the dark. The lamp was the least interesting thing about the clearing though.

Underneath its warm glow Harry saw the young girl he'd passed earlier. Her cat was passed out just a few feet away. Harry bit his lip as he moved to the young girl's side. He lowered an ear to her chest. Still breathing, but only shallowly. That was good but not great. "Can you hear me?" he asked patting her cheek lightly. She stirred minutely and he saw her eyes open for just a moment before they clenched tight in pain.

There went his plans to just bunker down in the maze. He removed his bag and set it down. He unzipped the front and then checked on the little white cat. She seemed to be in a similar state to the girl. Harry gently lifted her, eliciting a groan but little else. He eased her into the bag, making sure her head stayed above the seam. He actually had no idea what a magically extended bag might do to someone if they fell in there. Would she be smacked around by all the supplies he kept in there?

Now wasn't really the time for pondering it though. He put the bag on backwards with the straps secured as best as they could be on his back. Then he hefted the girl up and onto his back.

"Let's see how much weight those hedges can support I guess." He said with a nervous chuckle.

XXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxx

The grumpy old man muttered as he tottered about the room. Harry gave him apologetic smiles the whole time. He'd kind of smashed through the healer's door on accident. He'd lost balance as he was running towards the nearest healer's place, pointed out helpfully by an old couple that had been meandering back home, and went head first through the old oak door. He'd heard he was hard headed in the past but honestly this was taking the sentiment too far. Still, once he'd dropped off the patients and heard the healer's berating about how much it would cost to fix Harry had fixed the door in no time flat.

Not having anything immediately to complain about the man had settled on treating his two new patients. Harry had sat down in a chair to the side of the young girl's bed and was eying her with concern. He didn't know the girl personally but as the person who'd found her he felt just a bit responsible for her continued well being.

The ground rumbled outside and Harry could hear someone talking over a com system of some sort. It probably had something or another to do with the tournament, but he wasn't particularly interested at the moment.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" he offered.

"Stay out of the way." The old man snapped as he focused back in on the girl.

"Done." Harry said raising his hands in an apologetic manner.

"She has magical exhaustion." He said laying a compress against the girl head. She stirred slightly from the uncomfortable sensation. "Her friend here is likely the same."

"They did this to themselves?" Harry asked incredulously. "I find that hard to believe."

"No you idiot."

Harry felt his eyebrows raise marginally.

"They lost all their magic power in one shot. Someone took it from them."

Harry's eyes darkened and he looked down at the petite girl. Who would do something like that to a child? It seemed pointlessly cruel to do it to an adult, let alone some little girl who hadn't even hit puberty. She was probably like, what, nine? He was bad with ages. Maybe she was a bit older than that. He'd been pretty puny as an eleven year old. Maybe she had the same problem.

Now wasn't really the time for his mind to take tangents though. He was forced back to the situation at hand as the door slammed open. A pink haired woman entered and Harry immediately froze as he recognized the vaguely familiar face.

"You…"

She clearly recognized him as well.

"Miss Porlyusica." Harry said, just a bit of shock showing in his tone. "What are…"

"Nevermind that," she snapped. Harry was starting to wonder if being highly irritable was one of the prerequisites to becoming a healer in Fiore. "How is Wendy?"

Harry blinked as the woman turned the question to the old man.

"She'll be fine. Bed rest and some food would do her good though."

Porlyusica only seemed to ask the question as a courtesy though as she immediately began to examine Wendy herself. Just a minute or two later she let lose a sigh herself. Apparently she'd come to the same conclusion. The old man was grumbling about useless questions.

Cold red eyes settled on Harry. "What are you doing here?"

"Eheh… coincidence I'm sure." Harry waved it off with a smile. "I just happened to find er… Wendy here, while I was wandering around the hedge maze. Couldn't just leave her passed out on the ground so I found the nearest healing station…thing." Harry still wasn't sure what they called this place. Was it a clinic? Hospital? Med bay?

Porlyusica's eyes said that if he were lying and she found out he'd be in for a world of pain. Harry's eyes travelled to the sleeping girl and the cat laid beside her.

"I didn't think you knew this girl." Harry said smiling a bit as he caught her eye again. "You seemed concerned. I thought you were very 'anti people'."

An intense look of irritation settled on Porlyusica's face but she didn't tell him to shut up or to leave which sort of surprised him.

"You found her?!"

Harry cringed a bit as the next person burst through the door. It was a girl who looked about sixteen or seventeen. Short white hair and the bluest eyes Harry had seen in a while.

"Yes, I found her. Now quiet down." Porlyusica barked. "If your group had bothered to check the clinics we might have found her sooner."

"I doubt it." Harry supplied glancing down at the sleeping girl. "We've only been here for twenty minutes or so."

The white haired girl blinked, but a second later a kind smile spread over her face. "Did you find Wendy and Carla and bring them here? Thank you."

"Eheh…" Harry rubbed the back of his head. "It was nothing really. Wait… the cat's name is Carla?"

"Was there anyone else around when you found them?" Porlyusica interrupted his thought train before he could even really get started. Harry was a bit confused as to why someone would name a cat such a human name. Was that normal now? Then again the cat had been talking in a human like manner earlier when they'd passed, calling her Fluffy or Prissy or something would probably be immensely patronizing.

Harry shook his head. "No one I saw." He admitted. "Why would someone target a child anyway?"

"She was part of Fairy Tail's team to compete in the Grand Magic Games." The white haired girl spoke up. "Maybe someone was trying to take down the competition."

Harry felt more than a little anger at that prospect. That was just dirty. "Wait…" Harry turned to the girl. "Isn't this some sort of fighting competition? Why in the hell would you let a child participate in something like that?"

The girl looked taken aback by his tone.

"Sit down and shut up." Porlyusica snapped.

Harry gave the woman an irritated side glance.

"Not all of it is fighting." The white haired girl said, moving closer to her sleeping guild mate. "There are small challenges like races and such according to my guild mates. Besides, Master thinks Wendy can do it so I'm sure she can. He wouldn't send her out if he didn't think she could do it."

Harry frowned. This girl had a lot of faith in her guild master. He must be a kind old man. Either that or he'd inspired the same blind devotion Dumbledore had back in his day. Either way, when it really came down to it, it wasn't his problem to be concerned about. He'd brought the young girl to safety and she probably wouldn't be participating anyway if she'd had her magic consumed. He stood, brushing off the front of his clothes.

"Now that they have people they know here I think I'll leave them in Miss Porlyusica's capable hands." He said picking up his bag and slinging it over his right shoulder.

As he made for the door warm hands grabbed his arm rather tightly. He glanced down at the point of contact before traveling to the white haired.

"You don't have to leave." She said looking concerned. "I'm sure Wendy and Carla would want to thank you for helping them."

Harry smiled. "I'm sure we'll run into each other again." He countered. "She probably won't wake up for a while anyway. I'd just be a hindrance to Miss Porlyusica. It was nice to meet you though Miss…"

"Oh," she released his arm and extended a hand instead. "Lisanna."

"Miss Lisanna." He nodded. "I'm sure you'll see me hanging around. I was going to watch the games after all."

He could tell she wasn't content with this answer but she didn't push the issue. He opened the door. "Wait, you didn't give me… your name." she called out as the door swung shut behind him.

"Don't bother." Porlyusica adjusted a cloth on Wendy's forehead. "Once he's made up his mind to leave he won't come back."

Lisanna turned to the old healer. She hadn't had too much interaction with her. On top of her surly attitude Lisanna found it hard to be around the woman who originally came from the world she had been forced to stay in for so long.

"Do you know who he is?" she asked sitting on the opposite side of the bed.

"He only gave his name when we first met. Harry."

"That's all we know about him…" she glanced down at the young girl and cat in front of her. A small smile lit upon her face. "No, I suppose we know he's kind."

"Not everyone would stop to help people they didn't know." Porlyusica agreed in her own way.

Lisanna glanced at the door. "I hope we can meet him again. I'm sure Wendy wants to say thanks."

Porlyusica just grunted in agreement.


	4. Two Lucys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Harry learns the necessity of maps and makes some new friends.

Harry hummed in amusement as he watched the crowd go wild. He hadn't made it to a lot of these games so far because he'd been busy exploring the capital. Two kids stepped out on the field and the announcer happily proclaimed them to be the 'twin dragons of Sabertooth'. If Harry was remembering right Sabertooth was the top dog for the competition. The two didn't look like much if he were being honest with himself. Their faces held smug smiles. They seemed a little too self assured.

Just a moment later their competitors stepped out. One had long, jet black hair. The camera did a close up but Harry was certain he'd never seen him before. On the other hand his partner was a little too shockingly familiar. Vibrant, short cropped pink hair and a vicious grin.

"So we meet again." Harry muttered to himself just as the speakers announced the two to be Natsu Dragneel and Gajeel Redfox. Harry watched the two with curiosity before standing. The two people behind him complained but he wasn't there for long. He could tell the outcome of the fight just from watching the movement of the four opponents.

"You're leaving right before the big fight?" a random by stander asked curiously. Harry glanced over. Perhaps it wasn't a random bystander. His clothing looked familiar.

Harry smiled, but it felt forced even to him. "The outcome of this fight is already determined. I think I'd rather spend my time exploring."

The man looked taken aback by that. Then slightly offended. "I wouldn't rule Fairy Tail out that easily."

Harry glanced down to see the fighting had just begun in earnest. "No," he agreed, "Fairy Tail will win."

And with that he continued past the stranger. As he rounded the corner he recalled why the man had looked familiar. "Ah." Harry hesitated for just a moment before continuing. Mystogan. He'd just barely happened to catch the end of the mysterious wizard's fight. He'd gone down in a laughing fit that had puzzled Harry just as much as the rest of the crowd. Harry hadn't even gotten the chance to see how well the man fought as he'd come in just as the laughing started. Go figure.

He continued walking. Well, at least the wizard had the courage to stand up for his odd guild even if he'd lost his fight.

Still, Harry couldn't say he was too terribly interested in the paired fighting matches. He'd wanted to watch some of the actual game like events but he always seemed to miss them. He kept getting lost in the vast capital. Harry's mind wandered to the pink haired kid fighting in the ring below. If he was here, did that mean Lucy Heartfilia was here as well?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ah, yeah." Harry knocked against one of the stone walls surrounding him. "Definitely lost."

Rocks and bones seemed to stretch for miles to either side of him. He'd stumbled upon the entrance to the cave yesterday after leaving the dragon slayer match. In retrospect he probably shouldn't have gone wandering in to a completely abandoned cave system without mapping out where he was going. He was pretty sure he took a left on the second turn, but now that he'd tried to backtrack it was clear to him that he hadn't. He was completely and utterly lost.

He gave himself a mental shrug and moved further into the labyrinth. Maybe there was some sort of treasure in the center. Worst case scenario he could just start blasting holes upward until he saw sunlight. He had plenty of supplies too.

"I shouldn't be so calm about being trapped in a cave." He muttered aloud.

The cave shook. Harry slipped and nearly smacked his head against the wall to his right. A bit further in he saw a wall cave in.

"What in the hell caused that?" he asked, moving to get a look at the collapsed rock. Another set of tunnels stretched out on the other side. He shrugged and moved through. He paused as he did so. While the previous tunnels seemed to be occupied by ancient skeletons some of these actually appeared to be surrounded by magazines. Harry lifted one of the old copies.

Fairy Tail. There was that name again. He kept running into it. A picture on the cover caught his attention before he could flip through. A young girl stood in the foreground of the shot and some of her guild mates stood a bit further back. Her long hair and the cat by her side were unmistakable.

"Wendy?" he said with confusion. The young girl he'd helped earlier that week was on the cover of a magazine that had clearly been in the caves for a long time. If that couldn't be evidenced by the skeletons holding copies it could by the date printed on the cover. It was an issue from seven years earlier. And yet, Wendy didn't look like she'd aged a day.

And there, in the background he could see Lucy. She too seemed not to have aged. He tucked the copy into his bag. Fairy Tail seemed to have some penchant for getting into odd situations.

There was a rumble from further up the corridor so Harry made a beeline. He stopped when he reached a dead end. He could just hear voices coming from the other side. Lucky. Maybe these people could tell him how to get out. Or maybe they were just as lost as he was and needed help. Either way the solution was similar.

He glanced to both sides to see if there was an easy way through, but no such luck. So he settled for the hard way. He laid a hand on the wall and channeled his magic there for a moment. Then in the blink of an eye the wall shattered, exploding away from him in a violent rush.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Wendy tried to move her arms to no avail. They were pinned to either side of her quite effectively by the pink haired wizard's attack. The girl in front of her was ranting about beauty and death, but quite honestly Wendy was finding it a bit hard to focus on her words. The young girl's eyes were unfocusing thanks to the heavy smell drifting from the poisonous plants that surrounded her.

Just as she was about to succumb to the sweet embrace of unconsciousness something odd happened. The wall to her right exploded inward pelting both girls with rocks. The distraction helped focus Wendy's mind, but so did the intoxicating whiff of fresh air that the explosion brought with it. She looked down, more than expecting find Natsu having blown through the wall during his fight. Instead her eyes landed on a man she felt the vaguest sense of familiarity upon seeing. But she couldn't honestly say where she'd seen him before.

The man was glancing around the room with curiosity evident on his face. He didn't seem at all worried about the carnivorous plants surrounding him, or the pink haired girl who looked livid at his intrusion.

"Run!" Wendy shouted. "It's not safe here."

His eyes traveled up the small mountain of plant pods Wendy was buried in until their eyes met. She saw a flash of recognition in their startlingly green depths.

"How ugly."

A tendril of leafy green plant vines wrapped around Harry's waist, lifting him from the ground.

"Leave him out of this!" Wendy pleaded. "He's not involved!"

"If he's in the Abyss Palace then he must be someone who was sent to receive judgment by the Garou knights." The pink haired woman disagreed. "Worry not, I'll deal with him quickly so we might return to your beautiful execution."

"Deletrius." With just a word Harry was no longer bound by the vines that had ensnared him. He landed softly on his feet. The vines were gone, plain and simple. No trace they had been there to begin with.

"How dare you!" Cosmos shrieked. "I'll-"

"Diminuendo."

The irritated pink haired girl began to shrink, much to her horror and Wendy's astonishment. She stopped shrinking when she was approximately the size of a cat. Harry stooped down and grabbed the back of her dress.

"This is… not beautiful."

Harry flicked the back of her head knocking her unconscious. Then he set her down gently and turned his sights to the blue haired girl trapped in a pile of plant pods.

"Who are you?" Wendy asked as the man approached. She flinched slightly as he reached out, but all he did was place a hand on either side of her arms and pull, freeing her.

"My name is Harry. And you certainly are in need of rescue quite often."

"I am not." Wendy disagreed. Then she hesitated. Did that mean he'd rescued her before? Then.. "You must be the guy Grandeeney was talking about."

"Grandeeney?" Harry repeated the name.

"Oh, um, Porlyusica."

"Ah." Harry made a sound of agreement. He glanced around the room. "This is an odd sort of place. Are you down here alone?"

"Not… really." Wendy said eying the man with hesitance. Sure he'd saved her, twice apparently, but that didn't necessarily make him a good guy did it? That's definitely what Carla would have said. Still, he didn't seem bad. "Are you?"

"Hmm?" Harry looked down and she was struck again by his eyes. They almost seemed to be glowing. "Oh, yeah. Can't find the way back out."

"So you came in here willingly?"

"Didn't you?"

She shook her head and gestured toward the ceiling. "We fell."

"Where's the rest of your group?"

She glanced uneasily back at the hallway she had come from. There were no more sounds of fighting like there had been earlier. She wondered if that meant her friends had won. When she turned back he was looking in the same direction she had been.

"Shall we look for them?"

"Yeah!" she smiled. It would work in her favor to keep him in her sights until she met back up with the group, right?

The hallway was empty. They could hears voices echoing about and Wendy was sure she could hear someone yelling her name, but she had absolutely no idea where it was coming from.

"Natsu?!" she yelled. "Carla!"

"They don't seem to be nearby." Harry shook his head. "I'm sure we'll find them though."

They continued down the long stone hallway. He took a small stick and placed it in his palm. "Point me, exit." he said and the stick began to twirl, picking up speed as he let it continue. He heaved a sigh after a moment and stopped the small twig in its place. "Guess that's still not working."

"What was that?" she asked, eying the stick as he put it away.

"Hmm? Oh, magic." he said dismissively, surveying their surroundings. He brushed his hand along the cavern wall. "This has to be getting closer to an exit. All the walls before now seemed to be naturally formed. These are clearly man made."

"Yeah, I'm sure my friends are heading this way too." She could faintly smell the charred scent of Natsu somewhere in the distance, but the maze of tunnels confused the direction.

Harry smiled and that eased her apprehension a bit.

"Thank you… by the way." Wendy said messing with the hem of her dress. "For saving me, and for helping me find the others."

Harry just shrugged. "I have no reason not to help you. We're both looking for the exit." He replied matter of factly, like it was just obvious he should have helped her. "I suppose I shouldn't go wandering into caves though."

Wendy gave a half hearted laugh as she looked at him with confusion. "So, um, Harry. You seem really strong. Are you part of a guild?"

The carefree smile that had been plastered on his face melted into a stoic look. "Not really. I've been traveling alone for awhile now. Exploring Fiore. It's an interesting place." He lowered his head and muttered. "Magic has changed so much."

"What?" Wendy asked, not having been able to really hear his last comment as the echoing of their footsteps overpowered it.

He looked up and the smile was back full force. "Nothing important. You hungry?"

At the mention of food her stomach growled. She felt her face go red. "I… I don't really want to take your food. Who knows how long we'll be down here, we might need it later."

"Nonsense." Harry admonished whipping off the small pack he'd been carrying on his back the whole time. It was almost too small. It couldn't have held more than a sandwich or two if he was carrying a spare set of clothes.

"No really." She waved her hands frantically. This man was offering her his obviously limited rations despite his being down here longer than her. "I-I'm not that-"

She cut off her speech as he retracted an entire loaf of bread from the too small space. Her mouth flew open in disbelief. Next he unpacked a full ham and a knife. He laid out a small piece of cloth and then set to work carving ample portions of the ham for sandwiches. When he was done making two large sandwiches he replaced everything but the bread in the pack and slung it on his back before offering one of the meals to her still gaping form.

"How did…" she uttered in shock as her hands closed around the food. "What sort of magic is that? I've never seen it before."

"Hmm? Oh, it's an extension charm. It's simple magic really. Not terribly difficult." He waved away her awe like he hadn't just produced food from seemingly nowhere. "Let's eat and walk shall we? We'll cover more ground that way." He tucked the bread under on arm.

Wendy followed his sedate pace. He was odd. He seemed all at once mysterious, and intimidating but also kind and good hearted. She took a bite of the sandwich and nearly cried. It tasted delicious after so many hours without food. Natsu would probably be ecstatic to see food. He'd been complaining since before they'd been dropped into the Abyss Palace.

Wendy nearly walked into Harry's back as he stopped abruptly. Just a little further down the hall was a magnificent door. Surely it was the exit. In front of its open doors stood a small group of familiar people.

Wendy's face lit up as she recognized her friends. "Carla!" she took off at a run, Harry followed at a more sedate pace.

The group turned their way slowly. They seemed to have been in the middle of a rather pressing conversation before the new arrival's interruption. And Harry, upon getting closer could now see why. There were two Lucys in the group. Or maybe the girl had a twin that hadn't shown up in the dreams she'd had in the clock.

"Wendy! Thank goodness." The white haired cat came forward and the two embraced as Harry caught up.

"Lucy, I see you're doing well." Harry gave a small bow toward the general direction of the identical girls.

"I… uh… you guys can see him too right?" the Lucy wearing a skirt asked waving her arm in his direction. The one in the cloak was just staring in wide eyed disbelief.

"Course we can." Natsu stepped forward. He sniffed the air and gave Harry a weird look. "Smells weird though."

"Who are you?" Carla asked, immediately putting herself between Wendy and the stranger.

"Another one of those knight losers?" Natsu asked rolling his shoulders and grinning maniacally.

"Wait!" Wendy shouted. "He helped me out. He's definitely not with the Garou Knights."

"H-how are you here?" Lucy asked arm waving again. Her eyes were switching between Harry and the cloaked Lucy very quickly. It was almost dizzying to watch. "Oh man, today is just too weird."

"You weren't here last time." The cloaked Lucy was watching him with confusion.

Harry's eyes focused on the girl when she said that. His eyes narrowed.

"You know this guy Lucy?" Natsu asked, hands on his hips.

"Yeah, I mean sorta. Oh this is weird."

"They're probably in loooove." Said the small blue cat.

"Ah," Harry clapped realizing what was off about the girl in the cloak. "There's a time disturbance around you."

That shut everyone up. They all looked at him with varying degrees of disbelief.

"You're not from this time are you?" Harry asked.

After the initial shock wore off the cloaked Lucy let a small smile slip onto her face. It was sad. "You could tell just by looking, huh?" she seemed much more subdued than her counterpart.

"The number one rule of time travel magic is that you're not supposed to meet up with your past self." Harry said nodding with his eyes closed as the others looked on in wonder. "Drives some people bonkers. Sometimes it creates paradoxes too."

"I had to though!" future Lucy interjected. "I had to… I wanted…"

Tears started to fall from her eyes. Harry just smiled softly.

"Who are you?"

Harry's eyes flicked to an older man. He was the oldest in the group save Harry himself. "My name is Harry."

"Doesn't matter." Natsu interrupted. "Long as he ain't trying to stop us he's fine."

"Natsu's right. We have more important things to focus on right now." A busty woman in spandex agreed. "We need to get moving before the palace can send down more guards."

"Oh… it seems as though I've been drug into something illegal." Harry said to himself as the group began to move.

"Ah, yeah, sorry." Wendy apologized. "We didn't really do anything bad though."

Harry smiled and shrugged. "It figures."

"Is that… food?" A drooling Natsu was eying the bread under Harry's arm.

"Hmm…? Oh." Harry lifted the bread. "I forgot I was carrying that. Would you like some?"

Natsu took the bread like he'd been offered the Holy Grail. He scarfed it down in two seconds flat before slamming a hand into Harry's back making him pitch forward just a step or two to keep his balance. "Man! That hit the spot. It wasn't fire or nothing but definitely better than starving."

"Rude." Harry said simply, straightening his waist coat.

"Sorry buddy. Didn't mean to make you fall. You must be super weak though." Natsu laughed boisterously.

"Natsu, we're kind sneaking through a castle. Maybe keep your voice down!" Lucy protested. She was eying Harry warily anyway.

They entered a long ornate hallway. Windows stretched across the left side.

"Hey, where did Yukino go?"

Harry turned away from the city displayed on the other side of the window. Two members of their group seemed to have disappeared. The older man and young girl with short white hair were nowhere to be found.

"This isn't good. They were right behind us." The girl with long white hair said, frowning.

"What do we do?" Lucy asked, unsure.

"Keep going." The same busty girl spoke again. "I'll go back and find them. But too many of us wandering the castle will be too noticeable."

"But Mira…"

"Get going!" the white haired woman ordered as she took off down the hallway they'd just come from.

"We should hurry." Future Lucy spoke. "If we're quick maybe we can make it outside the castle before…"

"Halt! You shall go no further." A platoon of knights blocked their path further up.

"Spoke too soon I think." Harry muttered.

"That's not good."

Harry stopped and tilted his head to the side. "Does anyone else feel that?" he said lowly. He didn't actually expect an answer. It felt like there was a subtle draw on the latent magical energy in the air. He opened his eyes to see the group had moved ahead without him. They were currently engaged with the platoon of knights and guards that had filtered into the hallway. But their fight seemed almost meaningless to Harry. Whatever was drawing in the energy, now that was interesting. He almost wanted to ditch the guild and jump out the window.

Thinking of, why hadn't the group done that in the first place? Did they really need a proper door? Glass was easy enough to break and they were only maybe three stories up. If what he'd seen was correct getting down to the ground from this height should be child's play for the wizards.

Still, ditching the group when they were clearly outnumbered went against his inset moral code. He stepped forward, and got kicked in the shin by a tiny pink haired girl. The girl who'd been attacking Wendy earlier was there and she looked peeved.

"Ah," Harry squatted down and lifted the girl to eye level by the back of her dress. "I apologize for shrinking you. You'll go back to normal in a few hours."

"Put me down!" she screamed in irritation. "This is not beautiful! I will end you!"

Harry placed the ranting girl back on the floor and raised his hands in an apologetic manner, still stooping so he was closer to her height. "There's no need to get worked up." He mollified. "I was only trying to help Miss Wendy. She seemed in a bad state. Besides, you attacked me first with your creepy plant vines."

"I'll show you creepy plant vines!" she screamed. Immediately greenery burst from the floor. "Now my beauties, crush hi…!"

Two inch vines extended from the floor near her feet.

Harry looked at the vines, then back at her.

Silence rang between the two before the plants wilted and a disheartened look overtook the pink haired girl.

"I'm sure your powers will return to normal when you do." Harry said giving her a sympathetic look.

Shadows flew over the floor then, startling Harry. He immediately began to sink into the inky blackness, as did the small pink haired girl. She panicked trying to push herself back out. Harry gingerly grabbed her arm and pulled her from the darkness. "Hold on." He said placing her on his shoulder. He could feel the shadows dragging him in like hands pulling him down. He had no idea what would happen if he were fully submerged in their depths, and he didn't particularly want to find out.

"Ascendio." Harry intoned and the two lifted out of the shadows forcefully. Before they could fall back into the darkness Harry transfigured part of the wall into a platform. He landed softly and turned his head slightly. "You alright up there."

"I'm fine." The girl huffed, but she was clearly shaken by her encounter with the all consuming shadows. Just moments later the darkness disappeared leaving only the Fairy Tail group down the hall. Harry hesitantly leaped down from their protected spot. A scowl lined his face. Just who had made that attack? Was it one of the Fairy Tail mages? If so why had they sent it after him? He hadn't been attacking them.

He didn't have to wait long for an answer. The culprit revealed themselves just as Harry started making his way back to the group, and boy did he look the part of villain. He wore a long cape draped across his form and piercing eyes met them from the darkness just above a too wide grin. It was like looking at the Cheshire cat in human form.

"Shadows can reach beyond the present to both the past and the future. It seems we meet again, Natsu Dragneel. I traveled quite a ways from the distant future. I'm Rogue."

"Rogue?" Natsu said with surprise.

"The same one Natsu fought in the tournament?"

Harry's head tilted slightly to the side. Rogue? Why did that name sound familiar. Hmmm…

"Why are you here?" the small blue cat asked.

"You took out all the soldiers, are you trying to help us?" an orange haired main with glasses asked.

Harry's eyes darted to the side in confusion. Had that guy been with the group before? He was pretty sure he hadn't.

"All I want, is to use the Eclipse."

Harry rubbed the back of his head and glanced at the tiny pink haired girl on his shoulder. "Are you following any of this?" he asked, very confused.

She looked down on him with nothing short of disdain. "Of course. I'm not an idiot."

"Oh good." He smiled. "What's the eclipse?"

She remained quiet, eyes locked with his for a solid minute before her eyebrow began to twitch and she looked away in a huff.

Harry sighed. "You didn't have to lie."

"…10 thousand dragons."

Harry blinked a few times. He'd missed a fair amount of that and apparently it had been important. Damn.

"So it's possible. We can win." Future Lucy seemed awed by the news. Whatever it had been.

"Seems nice and simple." Natsu said.

"Awe yeah!"

"Does this mean everything's gonna be okay?" Wendy asked, looking somewhere between worried and hopeful.

Whatever had happened it seemed the group had sorted out some sort of solution.

"'Fraid not." Rogue countered. "You see I come from a time seven years in the future."

Harry yawned heavily. All eyes shifted to him. He blinked rapidly. "Ah," he held up a hand. "Sorry. Go on."

Rogue's brows pulled down into a scowl. "Who are you?"

"No one important." Harry waved away the question. "Don't worry about it. Continue with your exposition."

Rogue did just that, though he kept a close eye on Harry the whole time. Harry found it creepy. He detailed a history where dragons ruled the world and the human population had been reduced to a fraction of its former size. If the future Lucy's reaction was anything to gauge by the man wasn't lying. Then he told them how this mysterious 'eclipse' could destroy the dragon threat before they had a chance to take hold, but something wasn't sitting right about the story. If the dragons hadn't done anything up to this point why would they now? And where would they even come from? There's no way that ten thousand dragons could amass for an attack and no one would notice.

"Seven years in my past someone prevented the Eclipse Gate from functioning properly."

"But how come, why would they do that?" Lucy asked, confused.

"Because of that one person's actions Eclipse Two never activated, and humanity was left defenseless against ten thousand raging dragons."

Harry's face grew serious as the conversation turned. He had a feeling the man in front of them was about to announce the draw back in his plan. He plucked the pink haired girl from his shoulder, earning a confused look from her. He gently placed her on the ground.

"This person let ninety percent of humanity die. So I've come back to save those lives by eradicating theirs."

"How barbaric! Why don't you try explaining the situation to them before you resort to violence." The small white cat named Carla spoke up. Her voice was prim and proper and Harry had to stifle a laugh at the sound of it.

"She's right. There's no need for bloodshed." The black cat next to her agreed.

"A person's destiny is immutable. Even if I ended up convincing them somehow they would still find a way to stop Eclipse. Fate has stolen that choice from them. Their future is set in stone."

"They don't have a choice?"

"None of us are stronger than fate. As long as that person is alive it's bound to happen again."

"I don't have a clue what you're talking about buddy." Natsu's head dipped down a bit as if struggling to comprehend the intensity of the time traveler's words. "Spill it, who's this person you're after any way."

"It's you, Lucy Heartfilia!" and with her name he lashed out. A bolt of shadows flew from his hand straight at the current Lucy's chest. Harry could see Natsu try to grab it, but his hand went right through. The future Lucy tried to dive in front of her past self, which was somewhat smart on her part. After all, both would vanish if her past self died. Still, Harry wasn't standing by and watching a young girl commit suicide.

He was in front of Lucy in a moment even as the others turned in horrified shock, expecting the worst.

"Protego Maxima!" he shouted and a shield flared to life in front of him. The shadow hit and a dull ring filled the hall.

"You will not stop me!" Rogue yelled, infuriated by the interference. Several more of the projectile shadows lanced forth.

"Protego Totalum." Harry said more levelly and a sphere of magic surrounded both himself and the two Lucys. He glared in defiance as the shadows struck ineffectually against the shell even as the rest of Lucy's guild mates shook themselves from their stupors.

"You just made a big mistake buddy." Natsu seemed to be the first to recover.

Harry caught Lucy's hand just as she was about to stumble out of the protective bubble. "Careful now. This level of the spell isn't nice to anyone but the caster." He offered a small smile.

She seemed dazed. Behind them a battle started in earnest between Natsu and Rogue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel it necessary to not that all spells I use for Harry are cannon spells from the Harry Potter wikia. I don't always have him recite incantations though


	5. The Gates of Chaos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Harry is proven right and Charlie Weasley is proud of Harry's memory of dragon weak points posthumously.

"I don't understand."

Harry turned toward the Lucy behind him. She was staring at Natsu and Rogue as they exchanged blows, her eyes riveted to the dark haired man.

"I didn't close the gate in the past. I was stuck in the castle until after the dragons had already begun their attack." She said distantly. "So why is he so convinced that I did it?"

"Causality." Harry said helping her to her feet. "You both must have come from different futures. In his version of the future a different version of you must have closed the Eclipse Gate. Which means there's a branching point in the near future where you either do or do not make that decision."

She turned to him with pain filled eyes. "But why would I shut the gate if it's our only hope of salvation."

Harry smiled. "That's easy. It's highly probable that he's not being truthful about what the gate does."

For some reason the answer shocked both of the girls. He couldn't fathom why, Rogue didn't seem like he was particularly trustworthy. What with the whole 'attempted murder' thing and all.

"Either that or you're secretly evil." He put on a mock scowl. Both seemed perturbed at the implication so he shook his head and sighed. "Won't know for sure until we see this 'Eclipse' thing with our own two… er, six eyes."

"Right." Present Lucy agreed clenching her fist. "No sense worrying about the future. We've gotta live in the moment."

"And at this particular moment I'm saying we get out of this castle and find this gate everyone's been going on about." Harry agreed.

"Lucy, are you okay?" Wendy stood just outside of the shield looking, hesitantly like she wanted to place her hand against it. Harry waved off the action.

"Well this is trippy. Almost feels like I'm walking through bubbles."

Harry whipped around to see the orange haired guy standing half in and half out of the shield. "How are you doing that?!" he asked wide eyed.

"Should I not be able to?"

"Hold on." Harry held up a finger. "Finite Incantatum."

The bubble around them disintegrated like shattering glass and the blue hue on the surrounding world went with it.

"The only one that's supposed to be able to pass through the Protego Totalum is the caster. How odd." He surveyed the man in front of him walking in a circle around him. He looked normal enough, but he should have been hurt by the shell when he tried to pass through. Harry had seen it straight up disintegrate dark wizards in the past. Was the man just so inherently good that the shield didn't register him as a threat? Harry tossed that idea out. No one was that pure and the magic should have been able to keep him out even if he were an ally. How curious indeed.

Wendy smiled at the mysterious wizard circling their friend and muttering to himself. "Thank you for protecting Lucy."

"I thought you were a goner for sure!" the blue cat called energetically. "Good thing your boyfriend was here."

"HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" Lucy screamed in irritation.

Harry blinked, snapping out of his analytical mumbling. He took a second to look at the offended Lucy before meeting Wendy's gaze again. He knelt down just the slightest bit so they were eye level. "Level with me Wendy. Am I ugly? Because she sounded upset."

Harry didn't realize the blonde had heard him and was slowly going beet red behind him.

"I think they're in loooove." The blue cat said obnoxiously.

Natsu landed just a few feet from their light hearted discussion. He was breathing heavily but a wide grin stretched his face. He looked amped up.

"I think now would be a prudent time to make our retreat." Carla noted.

"That's right guys." Natsu called. "You leave this no good jerk to me. I'll beat some sense into him."

Lucy frowned. "Should we really just leave him there like that?"

"We don't have much choice if we want to make it out of the castle before the dragons show up." The black cat offered.

"What do you-" Lucy turned to Harry but in those few seconds that no one was paying attention to him the cheery, light hearted façade had slipped and he was eying the dueling pair with icy eyes. She wanted to shiver. It was like looking at a completely different person. Then he noticed her stare and the smile was back in an instant.

"We should go. I'm sure your friend can handle it for now." He said smiling and turning to the rest of the group. "Besides, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd like to see this 'Eclipse' thing for myself."

"Right." Lucy nodded hesitantly.

"Does anyone actually know the way out? Or were we just making guesses?" Harry asked turning to the group at large.

No one seemed to speak up, leaving Harry to believe they'd been winging it after all. He heaved a sigh, the blind leading the blind then.

"Well, I've got a solution." He said with a smile and took off down the hall in the direction they'd come from.

They all heard Rogue cry out. "I won't let you go!" but the shout was immediately drowned out by a loud crash which was presumably Natsu smacking him into a wall or something. Harry distantly hoped that Natsu had hit hard.

"This is the way we came from." Carla said looking at the floor to ceiling windows and then turning to Harry with annoyance clear on her face.

"That it is." Harry smiled down at her. He laid a hand against the glass and it shattered outward.

"You want to jump?" asked an irritated Carla.

"In a manner of speaking." He shrugged.

The black cat turned his way an eyed him for a moment before brilliant white wings popped from nowhere. "We can take down three of you, but that would leave someone up here alone. It's not good to split forces that thin."

Harry shook his head. "I wouldn't be alone. I've got-" he stuck his hand behind his head and withdrew something. "Pocket companion."

A peeved pink haired girl was standing in his palm.

"Ah, that's the lady from the Garou knights that attacked me." Wendy said looking at the tiny girl in amazement, but also just a tinge of trepidation like the girl would resize herself and attack any second.

"How'd she get so small?" Lucy asked, poking the pink haired girl.

"I, Kosmos, will not stand for this ugly behavior. Repent for your crimes scum!" Kosmos yelled, slapping away Lucy's finger.

The entire group blinked in disbelief.

"Anyway, the point is moot." Harry said returning Kosmos to his shoulder.

"Don't ignore me!" Kosmos said irately.

"I don't need you to carry me down."

"Sounds like a plan then." The black cat said with a grin.

"But wait," Harry looked around. "Where did your orange haired friend go?"

"Oh, Loki?" Lucy asked. "I closed his gate."

Harry wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but he let it slide. Instead he stepped forward to show he was ready.

The two other cats had their wings flare into being and each one grabbed a passenger. "Wow Lucy." The blue cat said as he drifted through the now broken window. "Future you is a lot lighter."

"You keep that up and you'll be eating dirt for a month." Lucy called back as the black cat lifted her.

Harry drifted to the edge of the building before turning to the small girl on his shoulder. "Did you want to come with us? I could leave you here."

She seemed irritated with the idea of being left behind so he let it drop.

"Okay." He said with a smile. "Hold on tight then."

He stepped over the edge of the building and they began to fall. A high pitched scream elicited from the girl that was now clinging to his hair like it was a life line. She began to lift from his shoulder.

"Arresto Momentum." Harry uttered and their descent slowed dramatically. They touched down softly about thirty seconds later near the group from Fairy Tail.

"That was so cool." Wendy said excitedly. "I wonder if I could do that with my air magic!"

"I have… so many questions." Lucy said, putting a hand to her head. "And they just keep piling up."

"Questions later." Harry said turning. "Anyone know where this gate is supposed to be?"

"It was right near the palace so we must be close." Future Lucy said.

"Right." Harry nodded. He made a split decision and veered to the left. The magic in the air seemed to be drifting that direction. Surely that had something to do with the gate everyone kept mentioning. They all trudged along but it didn't take them long to stumble across a group of soldiers that were spread out in a semi circle around the gate in question. In the center of the clearing this created there stood a knight in ridiculously complex armor and a young girl in elaborate clothing. Harry thought he recognized the knight.

"Looks like we made it just in time." Carla said eying the massive structure in front of them. It clinked loudly as many locks moved within it.

"I don't like the feel of that thing." Harry said suddenly. He was eying the massive gate with skepticism.

"You don't have to hide anymore." The knight called out, turning in their direction.

The first out of the bushes was the blue cat. He sprung forward almost defensively. "Just so you know we weren't doing anything bad over here."

"You're from Fairy Tail." The green haired girl said, eying the group as they stepped forward.

Harry broke away from the group, almost unnoticed. Only the Future Lucy followed his path with her eyes as he approached the gate.

"I apologize for the way you've been treated, but I'm afraid with the current state of things an official apology will have to wait."

"That doesn't matter." Lucy said eying the gate. "Why are you opening the gate now? There aren't any dragons. Doesn't it make more sense to wait until they show up?"

"She knows about the dragons?" asked the young green haired girl with confusion.

"She has been apprised of the situation Princess, they all have. Thanks to Ms. Heartfilia's future self."

The girl took only a moment to focus on the fact that there were indeed two identical blondes standing in front of her.

"I'm afraid that's not possible." The Princess answered Lucy's question "You see how long it takes to open. If we don't start now there won't be enough time to fire the cannon."

"What cannon?" Harry's voice asked from next to the gate. The knight and girl whipped around, obviously not having noticed his presence. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but all we're looking at here is a giant, ominous gate. I don't see a cannon."

"Who are you?" the Princess asked eying him warily.

"No one important." He shrugged.

"'Canon' is just a term." She explained. "When the gate is opened there will be a discharge of all the magical energy we've collected. It will be like a burst from a canon. But we'll only have one shot."

"Really." Harry muttered.

"You don't sound convinced." Kosmos said from his shoulder.

"I'm not." He turned to the group behind him. "Who told you about the 'canon'?"

"A man from the future." The Princess said earnestly. "He told me how the games would end and that this was our only hope."

"Did he now?"

"It was probably Rogue!" Lucy interrupted. "He kept attacking us, and he tried to kill me. He kept saying I was going to close the gate and let everyone be dragon chow."

"He tried to kill you?" asked the knight.

"And you'll swear there's no merit to his claim?" the Princess focused on a different part of her tale.

Harry frowned as Lucy stuttered out a denial. He turned slightly back to the gate which continued to clink away. No, if the gate was a threat Lucy wouldn't have to close it and gain their ire. He would do it himself. He'd spent millennia locked in a clock. He wasn't about to let the world be taken away again so quickly.

"How exactly do you intend to control the energy?" Harry asked, once again drawing attention to himself.

"What do you mean?" the knight asked stepping toward Harry, his eyes narrowed marginally. It was obvious he didn't trust Harry's presence.

"Well it's a large untamed mass of magical energy. You don't seem to have any sort of control panel and you'd be an idiot to try to use yourself as conduit. If there's as much magic in there as you claim there is then it would burn out a normal human in seconds. So I'll ask again, how do you intend to control the blast?"

"I don't think I like your tone." The knight said threateningly.

"He… he has a point." Carla spoke up in Harry's defense despite obviously not feeling any warmth towards the man they'd just met. "If you open the doors won't the magic just release right then?"

The knight gritted his teeth tightly. The princess seemed to take the skepticism roughly. She obviously hadn't had too much time to think the plan through and it was on the verge of backfiring on her now. Harry could see it.

"I think someone has coerced you into doing something foolhardy. You haven't thought it through." Harry shook his head.

"I won't have you sowing seeds of doubt." The knight unsheathed his sword and held its point just millimeters from Harry's neck. The wizard's eyes darkened at the obvious threat. "Who are you anyway? You came out of nowhere and now you act as though you are the authority in this matter. How do we know you are not here to doom humanity? Perhaps the future Rogue was wrong and it is you who are destined to close the gate and curse humanity's future."

Kosmos made herself known at that point. She'd largely been quiet and hovering near Harry's back observing the situation. "This is not beautiful." She said clearly, eying the knight. He caught sight of her and was obviously throw off guard by the miniaturized executioner.

With hardly a flick of his hand and a muttering of the word 'expelliarmus' the sword flew from the knight's grip.

"You can't use magic here!" Carla yelled even as Harry gave a startled gasp.

They could all see a swath of visible green energy seep from the mage and shoot into the gate, but they were surprised when he remained standing. He seemed irritated at best as he turned in the direction of the glow. With a swipe of his fingers the flow cut off.

"That was a bit more direct than I thought it'd be." He muttered before turning an incredulous eye to the princess. "No one noticed their magic being drained like that? It seemed rather obvious."

"I-it wasn't that strong from a distance." She said eying the man. She couldn't figure him out. He seemed to be part of the Fairy Tail group, yet she had no idea who he was. He was extremely intimidating yet somehow seemed the most level headed amongst them.

A resounding click echoed from the gate drawing their attention. A frown drew Harry's lips downward. It seemed their moment to decide whether or not they wanted to allow the gate to open had expired. The decision had been taken from them. The doors inched outwards and an overwhelmingly oppressive magic filled the air.

"Close the gates." They all heard Lucy say the words and most everyone turned to look at the girl incredulously. Harry continued to stare at the fading light. Something was wrong, very wrong.

"Something's wrong." Lucy objected again. "Can't you feel it?"

It didn't take long for what was wrong to make itself known. An enormous dragon edged its way through the open portal.

"We've got to close the gates!" Lucy shouted, running forward. The doors didn't so much as budge as she threw herself at them. The dragon let loose a massive roar.

"A dragon came through the gate?" the princess said in shock. "How is that possible?"

Harry strolled forward and put his shoulder against the massive door and both he and Lucy pushed. Even Kosmos jumped from his shoulder and tried her best from her relatively low stance. Harry's eyes snapped to the stupefied princess. A second dragon made its way out. "You did this, now start working on a solution."

The princess looked horrified at the dragons she had inadvertently set lose on her kingdom. "I…" she started then she shook her head and looked directly at Lucy. "The zodiac keys were used to open the gate. They're the only thing that can close it."

Lucy looked down at her waist in surprise. "My spirits?" she seemed unsure, but after a moment she nodded and began to call them forward one by one.

"All together now!" Lucy cried and the spirits rushed the door. The lingering Fairy Tail mages took up positions as well. Future Lucy took a place right next to Harry and looked at the spirits surrounding her in a very forlorn way.

"Give it everything you've got!" the black cat yelled.

Harry took a step back, gaining a curious glance from future Lucy. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and then flung his arms forward and intoned, "Flipendo Tria!"

The doors, which had barely budged even with all the effort, lurched forward narrowing the gap sizably. Harry took a haggard breath. That had been a powerful spell, even for his reserves. Thankfully whatever had been drawing in magic before seemed to have stopped.

"It's not enough." Future Lucy said, dejectedly.

"I can't keep this up." The other Lucy fell to her knees, shaking with visible effort from trying to keep so many celestial spirits out at once. Two of the spirits had their gates closed immediately at that declaration.

"Lucy, we're almost there." The orange haired man was back. "Just a bit further."

"I can help!"

The two white haired women from earlier had reappeared.

"Yukino!" the little blue cat seemed ecstatic the see the younger of the two.

"Together Lucy!" Yukino said, reaching out her hand to the blonde. "We'll bring out all of the zodiac to close the doors."

Lucy took her hand shakily, she clearly wanted to help but even keeping out the spirits that were out now was pushing her past her limits.

"I can help too." Harry had regained his breath and offered a small smile. "I can try to channel some of my energy into you."

Lucy looked hesitant but one look back at the gate was enough to tell her she didn't really have a choice. She nodded resolutely. He placed a hand on her shoulder and immediately it was like every nerve ending in her body was being shocked. It wasn't painful, it was exhilarating.

"Let's do this!"

With a sound like a doorbell the gates that had closed earlier reopened revealing a disheveled looking bull and a pink haired maid. Yukino's gates opened just moments later and the spirits all converged on the doors. The two celestial mages concentrated on keeping their gates open and Harry focused on channeling just enough energy into Lucy to keep her going. Too much and he might hurt her.

With a ground shaking thud and following clack the doors came together to seal off the pathway. A cheer went up at the sound. And was immediately drowned out by a deafening roar. Quick as they had closed the gates it hadn't been enough to prevent of few of the dragons from forcing their way through.

Harry's eyes trailed one as it smashed through one of the taller buildings in the capital.

"This is terrible." The current time's Lucy's eyes were turned to the destruction.

Future Lucy shook her head as she stepped up next to Harry. "This is better than it was." She disagreed.

"It's just a couple of dragons." Harry huffed, gaining disbelief from everyone present.

He watched as one of the over sized lizards landed roughly on a street. Immediately little flashes started erupting all over its body, attempts from nearby wizards to subdue the beast no doubt. Harry snorted.

"They're aiming at the wrong spots." He shook his head.

"You seem to know an awful lot about us."

Harry froze for a second before heaving a sigh. "That's a new trick. Never met a dragon who could talk."

"Maybe they just didn't think you were worth talking to."

Harry turned to see a bright green dragon behind him. It was massive, just like the others that had passed through the gate. Much larger than the Hungarian Horntail he'd fought as a child. But then this dragon's body didn't seem to be covered with as many spikes either so he was counting that as a plus.

"It's you!" Wendy's voice rang out.

The dragon turned its attention to the small girl. "Do I know you tiny human girl?"

"We talked before, in the cave." She said waving her hands as if the movement might jog his memory. "Zirconis!"

"I see my reputation precedes me." The dragon said tauntingly.

"He won't know who we are." The white cat, Carla spoke up. "The Zirconis we spoke with was a ghost, he died hundreds of years ago."

"So I guess the biggest question is, who do I eat first?" Zirconis was eying the group and salivating quite fiercely. His eyes roved from the armed soldiers in the back all the way up to little Wendy who was standing nearest to him.

"Like I'd let you get that far." Harry said with a glare. Wendy may have befriended some alternate version of the beast in front of him but he wasn't about to let it eat anyone just to prove a point.

Zirconis let out a bellowing laugh before lowering himself so his eyes were level with Harry. "You've got spunk. I like that." The dragon said, eying the wizard in front of him. "And you don't look like you'd be as tough to eat as those soldier types. And you smell weirdly good. I think I'll eat you."

"I'll pass." Harry raised a hand and waved it from side to side. He wasn't interested in being dragon chow.

The dragon's mouth began to glow as magic accumulated there. "I'm not giving you a choice, puny human."

Harry didn't waste a second. "Conjuntiva!" he bellowed.

The glow died as a beam of red light hit Zirconis in his eye. The dragon thrashed angrily before whipping around and inadvertently smashing into Harry with his tail, sending him flying.

Harry winced as the powerful tail smashed into his right arm, snapping it under the immense pressure even as he tried to throw a shielding charm up. He hadn't been fast enough and he could feel air rushing past him as he flew further and further from the group he'd found himself with. He could only hope they could take care of themselves for the time being.

He shook his head to clear it even as he cursed the dragon that had just hurled him through the air. It may not have been intentional but Zirconis had sent him pretty far. He was nearing the ground now but he was well into the city. "Arresto Mo-"

He didn't get the rest out as he face planted into a pile of surprisingly soft rubble. He pried his aching body from the ground only to realize he hadn't plummeted into the ground but rather a person. And a familiar one at that. She looked caught somewhere between pain, disbelief, and anger.

"Ah, my apologies." Harry said standing and favoring his right side. He offered her a hand but she stayed down. She didn't seem to be fairing any better than he was. In fact he'd say her ankle was probably worse off than his arm and his arm was pretty badly messed up.

"I remember you." She said eying Harry with a confused scowl. It was then that Harry realized they were surrounded by a few tiny dragonish monsters. He frowned.

"I apologize for the circumstances, but perhaps it was good I dropped in. It seems you could use the help."

She stared at him for a few moments, but then hesitantly nodded before forcing herself to her feet. She leaned heavily on her sword.

"Shall we then?" Harry asked a glint in his eyes as he looked at the weird creatures.

The red headed girl next to him simply gave a nod and she slowly hefted her sword back up and shifted weight onto her foot. "Let's." she agreed.


	6. To Slay a Dragon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry fights a dragon, Ichiya is jealous.

"There doesn't seem to be an end to them." Harry commented. He'd struck down at least his fiftieth dragon spawn and more were rounding the buildings on either side of himself and the red head he was fighting alongside.

"Agreed." She was panting and pale. If what he'd seen in the magic games was anything to go by it wasn't their opponents that were winding her. Her injury must be worse than it looked, and it looked pretty bad.

"I think a strategic escape might be in our best interest."

She slashed through one of the monsters that dove at her and then turned her gaze to him just for a moment. Her eyes said a lot in that moment though. Mostly, 'if you had a plan why haven't we done it yet', with a little bit of 'I will kill you for this' mixed in. It wasn't an encouraging look.

Admittedly, he had been hoping they'd be able to thin the numbers enough to make their way back to the group he'd been separated from through the streets. He was worried about how they were faring with a raging, sapient dragon as their opponent. He hadn't even had a chance to really tell them where to focus their efforts and they honestly weren't much older than he'd been when he'd matched off against a dragon half that size. Now that he thought about it, weren't a lot of the wizards fighting in the games relatively young? And weren't they the ones fighting the other dragons as well? He pushed that can of worms aside. The point was that if he enacted his plan chances were he wouldn't be able to make his way back into that fight.

His gaze went to the ankle of the girl next to him. He took a deep breath. 'Help those in front of you' was the new philosophy he'd devised for himself since entering this world. He couldn't very well turn his back on it now. Erza seemed the capable sort, but everyone faltered eventually.

"Protego totalum!" The words echoed through the bubble of defense that surrounded them even as it extended outward. Several of the dragon spawn made the mistake of touching the bubble. They erupted into brilliant flames. The rest of the things backed off a bit at the cries of distress coming from their brethren. They seemed to have, at the very least, a self preservation instinct even if it proved rather weak.

Beside him his companion faltered, turning to him with a curious look that almost said 'why didn't you do that sooner'. He didn't waste time explaining though. He'd used a lot of magic already and wasn't keen on the thought of wasting his reserves holding that barrier if the entire lot of tiny monsters decided to attack. He reached out, grabbed the girl's arm and pulled her close, eliciting a sharp gasp as she put too much pressure on her bad foot. He winced in sympathy.

He directed his hand downward. "Evanesco." He said clearly and the ground beneath their feet simply vanished.

Nails dug into his arm and there was an undignified squeak as they plummeted beneath the city.

"Arresto momentum!" Harry yelled as the ground came up to meet them a bit too fast. They seemed to hit a cloud of air that buffeted them gently to their feet. "Lumos maxima."

The light spell revealed a disheveled, and frankly irritated looking red head at his side. Harry released her and back a step or two away coughing into his hand and smiling disarmingly. Her head darted up and she glared for a second. Her eyes travelled above where she could just make out the distant moonlight like a speck in the cave ceiling far above them. It didn't seem any of their opponents were willing to follow. It was probably a one way trip to an early grave for anything that couldn't slow its fall.

"Do you expect me to spend the rest of the fight down here?" she asked heatedly. "My guildmates are up there fighting."

"Ah, haha… no." Harry waved his hand dismissively. "There aren't any of those things down here. I figured we'd make better time, and waste less energy if we went this way."

She glanced around only now seeming to notice that there did indeed seem to be pathways leading away from where they stood. Some disappeared further into the Earth while others meandered toward the surface. They were standing on a ring of raised Earth that dropped sharply to either side. Harry's lumos didn't hit the bottom of the chasm they'd nearly avoided falling into.

"Now that we're not surrounded." He whipped the battered bag off of his back. "It does make sense to regroup though."

He plopped the bag down and motioned for her to sit on a large rock. She did so skeptically. He gingerly moved her foot.

"How exactly did you manage to do this?" He asked wincing in empathy as he moved his own broken arm.

"It was crushed while I was fighting in the final game." She stopped him as he moved it. "It will be fine. We should go."

"We're more use if we aren't injured you know." He scoffed. "Give me a second. I'm not great with healing magic. It's not my forte."

She watched him as he placed his left hand on his right arm and said some gibberish words. The was a sharp cracking noise and he seemed to shudder as if someone had just dumped a bucket of ice water down his spine. But when he turned his attention back to her he was moving the arm he'd been favoring since he'd bumped into her on the road.

"It is you, isn't it?" she asked uncertainly. "You're the man I met outside the beach resort shortly before the games."

He hesitated for a moment, not meeting her gaze but seeming to look at her just a bit more sharply. That was why she'd seemed so familiar?

"Harry, wasn't it?"

His eye twitched and he raised a nervous gaze to look at her face. "A-aye." He agreed. That was indeed his name after all… but he couldn't for the life of him remember what hers had been. It was months ago they'd met and they'd only talked for a few minutes. How she remembered his name he'd never know. She'd just been cataloged in his brain as the scandalous girl he'd bumped into on the beach making out with an older man.

"How odd that we'd run into each other here of all places." She said as he muttered the strange words over her ankle. A bolt of the most unsettling feeling ran up her leg and made her jolt from his grasp. It wasn't quite pain, more like something was moving beneath her skin. But the movement brought very little pain. And her ankle felt almost normal compared to the agony it had been in. It was a miraculous difference and quicker even than Wendy's healing magic.

"That should be enough for now." Harry said standing. "We should still get you to a proper healer when this is all done though, so don't overdo it. Like I said, healing isn't really my thing. It's more a patch job than anything."

"Your magic is very versatile." She claimed putting pressure on the newly restored foot. "I've only ever met two other people capable of healing with magic. It's a rare gift, and usually it leaves its user with very little offensive power."

Harry just smiled at that, taking a canteen of water from his bag. "We should get a move on if we want to help your friends."

A determined set crossed her face and she nodded, carefully prying herself from the rock. She nearly tumbled to the side as her body tried to overcompensate again for the previously injured leg.

"Careful… y… you…" Harry stammered instantly regretting opening his mouth.

Her head swiveled and her eyes locked on his. "You?"

He offered her a shaky smile. "Water?" he offered.

"Do you not-"

Harry nearly dropped the canteen as the ground shook. Above them but some distance ahead and to the right the roof of the cavern splintered and the massive body of a dragon crashed through. The two took one glance before racing forward.

They covered ground quickly, perhaps a bit too quickly. Harry kept glancing at the girl's ankle hoping it wouldn't give out at an inopportune time. She was pushing it harder than he'd hoped she would. Still, he knew she'd probably be doing the same thing with no healing if he hadn't offered.

"Owwwww…"

Harry stopped short as he almost stepped on the prone body of a woman. He knelt down quickly and turned her onto her back. "Lucy?" he asked with confusion. Large chunks of rubble rained down around them as the dragon righted itself and tried to make its way back out of the hole it had created.

"Lucy?!"

The blonde's eyes snapped open and went to Harry's then to the other figure running to greet them. The red head must have turned back when she realized Harry wasn't following. "Erza?" Lucy asked with confusion.

"Ah!" Harry clapped his hands once as the memory snapped into place. "That was it."

The red head gave a minute glare before ignoring him. "Are you alright Lucy?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Lucy waved her hands erratically. "Honest."

Harry blinked and looked the blonde up and down. "You're wearing different clothes…" he noted. He might not have noticed if the clothing wasn't even more outlandish than most of the clothing he saw on a regular basis now. He was curious at exactly what point in time people just decided to stop wearing cardigans. "There aren't three of you running around now, are there?"

"Oh… ah… no." she denied blushing.

"Three?" Came the confused question from Erza, but Harry brushed it aside.

"You thought this was a good time for a clothing change?" he asked with confusion. He'd noticed that she seemed to take pride in the odd clothing she wore but she hadn't struck him as impractical enough to go about changing in the middle of imminent danger. But then it did look as though she'd forgotten to put on trousers so maybe she had been in the middle of a wardrobe change.

The light pink dust on her cheeks went crimson. She muttered under her breath something about Zirconis and Virgo. The comment probably would have been lost on him even if he'd been able to hear it.

"We have more pressing issues." Erza was standing now and staring at the hole the dragon, and presumably Lucy, had fallen through. Yelling echoed down from the surface, followed by explosions.

Harry nodded offering a hand to Lucy who was still sitting. "We should help." He agreed.

Erza nodded before giving Lucy a glance. Lucy shook her head hesitantly.

"I, uh… I was on my way back to the others." Her eyes went wide and she frantically searched the area immediately around her until she found a small, leather bound book.

"What's that?" Erza eyed the book.

"A diary."

A woman's scream cut them off. Erza took off. Harry spared Lucy another glance. "If you're going back to the others… be careful."

She nodded absently as he too began to run toward the hole. She stood, looking around. "Wait…" she threw her hands into the air. "How the hell am I supposed to get out of this place?!"

Harry grabbed another piece of rock and hoisted himself up. He let out a sigh. A group of strangers were standing around Erza as she took swings at an enormous dragon. At Erza's side a man with purple hair struck at the dragon's spine.

"Honestly…" he sighed. The dragon seemed to be made entirely of stone and the two were smacking it on its back where its defenses were surely strongest.

"Who're you?"

Harry flicked his eyes to one of the guys in the group that had been standing back. Medium blond hair, a decently attractive face, a suit, and… what the hell was that behind him? A shorter man with orange hair was flailing his arms as he yelled encouragements to the two fighters. Beside him was a cat that was only slightly shorter but seemed to have identical, hideous facial features. Harry cleared his throat and averted his eyes to avoid being rude. He'd seen a lot of odd beings since leaving his clock. They certainly weren't the strangest, though they were up there.

"Introductions can wait." He said with a shake of his head. "They'll need help."

"I'm not sure we can help all that much." Another blond spoke up this time. "We've gave it all we could before Erza even showed up and we didn't so much as put a scratch on it."

"It threatened to eat me!" A disgusted woman nearly screamed with indignation.

"Erza!" Harry yelled, pointing. "Aim for the eyes!"

Erza looked down and met his eyes. She gave him a nod and dodged a swing from the mammoth monster's arm. She bounced off of his forearm and propelled herself straight for the dragon's left eye. The dragon obviously saw it coming and moved to intercept but missed by a mile. Erza had more than enough speed advantage as she re-quipped into a leopard print armor.

The dragon roared with pain as the strike landed and that was when Harry made his move. He ran forward aiming up and into the thing's now exposed throat. "Bombarda Maxima!" he yelled and the force sent the dragon tumbling backward.

His claws clipped the purple haired man as he failed to escape the dragon's flight path. Erza caught the man as she made a controlled descent to the ground. They landed just feet from a panting Harry. He was nearing his limits, he wasn't sure how much more he'd be able to throw out.

"A good hit." Erza commented as she released her passenger onto the ground. He was clearly injured and he wasn't happy about it.

"It's not over." Harry said rolling his shoulders. "And the next one won't be so easy to get."

"Maybe aim better next time." The purple haired man spat viciously, clutching his shoulder.

Erza stood, moving away from the spiteful man and toward Harry. "You don't look like you have much left in you."

Harry laughed but he eyed the man that had been injured. "I don't. It's been a long day."

"That it has." She watched as the dragon righted itself and let out an ear ringing noise.

"We can't give up yet though."

"Indeed not."

"Another go?"

Erza just smiled and raced forward. She danced around the irate dragon's legs and then straight up toward the eyes again.

"Not the eyes again!" Harry yelled in a panic. Surely, as much as they'd pissed off the formidable beast it would still have the forethought to see the exact same attack coming. He raced forward as he saw the dragon use enough foresight to close its massive eye. Her blow glanced off the rock hard eyelid and in the split second she floated in the air trying to reorient herself the dragon's maw opened to snatch Erza out of the air. She saw the attack a moment too late. But then he was there and he snatched her arm and used his momentum to swing her out of the way just as impossibly huge teeth closed around where she'd just been. Where he now was. He could see her eyes go wide. Could see the panic on her face as they were separated by behemoth teeth.

Pain filled him just a moment. Pain like he hadn't felt in a long time. His bones snapped beneath teeth large enough to break mountains. And then the pain was gone.

Harry blinked. The whole scene playing through his head again. Erza stood next to him looking shaken. She was pale and sweating and looked like she wanted to vomit. Harry was sure he didn't look even a smidge better. He felt queasy.

"That was…"

Harry's brow drew together. "A time loop." He supplied.

"I nearly… you were…" Erza didn't seem like the type to be easily unsettled, but she was thoroughly unsettled now.

The dragon crashed back onto the scene, impatient with the lapse in their fight and unwilling to be ignored.

"Aim for his throat when I can get him to open his mouth." Harry said seriously. "Give it everything you've got. We might not get another chance."

She nodded hesitantly as he raced forward this time. "Conjunctiva!" he yelled striking the dragon in the eye. The dragon roared through gritted teeth. Clearly it had learned from its last mistake. It swatted at him and he used that to his advantage. He caught a claw as it swung past and used the speed to launch himself onto its face. Without another thought he did the first thing that came to his mind. As the dragon squinted out to see where he'd landed he threw a body bind at it. It did little more then freeze the eye open for a fraction of a second, but it was enough. He swung forward no magic, no weapon. He just plowed his arm straight into the dragon's good eye.

To say the inside of an eye felt disturbing would be an understatement. He wanted to retch right then and there but his action had the intended effect. The dragon cried out in pain, momentarily forgetting that it was trying to keep its mouth shut as its ruined eye popped under Harry's fist. Harry didn't see what attack Erza used but he could feel the waves of power rip through the dragon even as he removed his arm from the ruined eye. The thing crashed to the ground.

From the air the dragon almost seemed unharmed. Its stone exterior was hardly scuffed. But standing in front of it was another story. Its face was bloody and covered in viscera. It breathed its last even as Harry stared at his arm in distaste.

"Amazing…"

Harry turned to see the group they'd helped staring at the beast, awestruck. Even the purple haired guy who'd seemed mad at the their interruption was staring at the dragon with something akin to respect laced across his features.

"Are you alright?" Erza asked. She seemed to be shaking from the expended effort herself, but Harry was coming to learn that she rarely put her own well being before anyone else's.

"Could do with a shower." He admitted, but his mind was elsewhere. Something had triggered a time loop. Someone or something had saved his life. Had it been intentional? Had he even been the target? 

Erza's leg gave out and she hit the ground, hard.

"Erza!" one of the blond men cried out running to her side.

It seemed Fairy Tail had some good will amongst the other guilds. He wasn't sure if he found that surprising or not. Going into the games this year with a program and some fan guidance he'd come to understand that the guild had been in absolute last place the last few years they'd competed. They were more than an underdog, it had sounded like they hadn't even really been considered part of the running. It wasn't really adding up with the picture the members were painting for him.

"Your parfum is a strange one."

Harry nearly jumped out of his skin as the voice came from right behind him. He had to stop himself from kicking the odd looking, orange haired man that must have snuck up while he'd been thinking.

"I… don't actually know what that means." Harry supplied warily as he put a few more inches between himself and the odd man.

"Sniff Sniff."

The man was actually saying the word sniff. Harry took a step back. He might be tired but he was ready to book it to the next town over if this guy kept advancing.

"What's happening?" Harry looked back toward the rest of the group. They were all eying the dragon with confusion.

It couldn't be helped. The giant lizard's corpse was glowing an eerie red color and seemed to be disintegrating before their eyes. The light was flowing up into the night sky and then in the direction of the castle, and Harry suspected, the gate.

Across the city various other light sources were flowing into the night sky.

"Is it over?" Erza asked doubtfully. She looked ready to force herself to her feet and fight on if necessary.

The night had gone oddly quiet. Where before there had been loud booms and the sounds of fighting there was now a tentative silence as everyone waited with bated. 

Seconds passed, then minutes before a loud sound filled the night air. Harry tensed momentarily before he realized what it was. All around them the city cheered. Harry smiled. The joy after a long fight. He hadn't felt that in a long time. Such a long time.

"It seems the fight is won my friends!" Boomed the short orange haired man, still far too close to Harry for the wizard's comfort.

Harry moved shakily to Erza's side. "Are you alright?" he asked eying her ankle. "I did say not to over do it."

"I'll be fine." She pushed herself, on wobbling arms, to a sitting position.

"You need to take it easy Erza. Your injury from the games hasn't been seen to yet has it?" the older of the two blondes they'd run into was examining the red head's foot with concern.

"It's been seen to enough." She shook her head and despite protests forced herself to her feet.

"It's not a good idea to walk on it yet." Harry said catching her arm. "You could do lasting damage."

"I need to find my guild."

"He's right! Erza please, I'm sure everyone's fine." The blond coaxed again.

"Something like this couldn't take Fairy Tail out!" Agreed the other blond man.

Erza looked tempted to stay. She was obviously exhausted, but she shook her head anyway. "I won't be satisfied until I can see them with my own two eyes." She said looking at the slowly dimming skyline. It seemed that with the imminent threat of dragons dealt with people were putting out the fires that were lighting most of the city. All the wiring for the lights had been damaged in the fighting.

Harry let out a sigh but ignored his body's protest as he swung an arm under the red heads legs. She clearly hadn't been expecting it as she fell neatly into him with a shocked expression. He was sure that had he tried the same thing in a fight he'd have ended up with a boot to the head… or something worse.

Erza looked like she'd weigh a solid ton when she was wearing armor so he was thankful she had reverted to her casual clothes upon the conclusion of the fight. With just a quickly muttered feather light charm she was a comfortable weight for him to carry. When he looked at her face she was blushing something fierce and looked about ready to introduce his face to her fist.

He smiled disarmingly. "Let's find those friends of yours shall we?"

She relaxed a little in his arms at that declaration. Maybe she'd thought he intended to keep her from finding her guild mates.

The group from Blue Pegasus watched the two make their way into the heart of the city with incredulous looks. "Was he just carrying Erza bridal style?"

"Forget that. Who was that guy!?"Jenny yelled, pointing at the retreating duo.

Ichiya watched the two with intense eyes.

"It seems you have a rival." Hibiki chuckled, turning to Ichiya. He expected the man to be throwing a fit. Instead the orange haired man was staring after the two with an intense gaze that was rare to see on the man's face.


	7. Meet the Guild

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In Which Harry makes a terrible second impression and Lucy is interrogated.

Erza only truly relaxed once she'd met back up with Natsu and the others in his group. She may have spent hours fighting alongside the mysterious Harry but something about him still put her on edge. Natsu and Wendy decided to regal her on how the parts of the fight she'd missed went down. They spared no detail, filling her in on Lucy and her doppelganger that disappeared along with the dragons and how Natsu had crashed a dragon into the gate to destroy it. She had to admit, it was certainly a novel way to deal with their problem and it fit Natsu's destructive habits to a T.

The rest of the group seemed mostly at ease with Harry's presence. Apparently her guildmates were the group he'd mentioned being separated from during their fight. Each of her guildmates greeted him with smiles and laughter and stories about a naked Lucy, much to the blonde's dismay. She, in fact, seemed the only one less than thrilled with his presence unless you counted Carla who was always suspicious of newcomers. Harry himself seemed at best ambivalent to all of it. He smiled and he laughed along with them but he didn't really seem to be all in it. He seemed to be lost in thought, much like she was. Though surely it was for different reasons.

Celebrations were well under way by the time they made it back to the heart of the city and it seemed the citizens were too concerned binging on drinks someone had found to really worry about the fact that their homes and businesses had been demolished. Erza snagged herself a bit of food and sat away from the table Natsu had claimed for his group. A lot had a happened and she wanted time to think. Natsu's loud mouth was generally a deterrent when one wanted quiet time. His boisterous laughter filled the air as she pondered the enigma seated just across from him. Because of course Natsu would pull Harry into a conversation about his and Erza's fight. 

She watched the wizard retell the story of their fight with amusement. She was surprised she'd never heard of him before. She supposed that in and of itself wasn't too surprising. There were plenty of people she didn't know in the world. But he was powerful, and he clearly wasn't actively trying to hide that. So why hadn't he made a name for himself? Why didn't he belong to a guild? Or perhaps he did belong to a guild but it wasn't a light guild. Most of all she couldn't help this niggling in the back of her mind that she'd felt his magic somewhere before.

It hadn't been on that beach. He hadn't used magic then. She recalled wondering if he was a villager that lived nearby until he mentioned he was traveling, and she hadn't even known he could use magic until they met here. It was before that. But when she couldn't say. She took a bite of her food and mulled it over.

"Natsu!"

Erza startled out of her reverie at the loud, excited call. She looked up and heaved a sigh of relief. The rest of the guild seemed to be trailing in. Lisanna, who was waving and running their direction, Gray, Juvia, Mirajane, and… Erza's eyes stopped as they landed on the short figure of their master. He looked tense, impossibly tense, like he was looking down one of the dragons that had been there just hours before.

She followed his line of sight to see it resting squarely on Harry. Harry in turn seemed to feel the old man's gaze on him and turned out of curiosity.

"So you're here." Makarov said. The statement was about as neutral as neutral got but the buzz of stress only grew worse in her mind. Erza could feel herself tense though she wasn't sure to whose aid she would spring if the situation deemed it necessary. The obvious choice was Makarov, but she wasn't sure what Harry had done to earn this much ire from the guild master.

"Aye." Harry agreed, facing screwing up into what could only be described as the smile of someone who was forcing themselves to be civil. "Here I am."

Silence passed between the two and the only people making any noise in the courtyard were Natsu and Lisanna who were arguing about how much danger the dragon slayer had been in. Natsu seemed to think it had been moderate at best, Lisanna clearly disagreed.

"You seem to have a habit of dropping in while I'm eating." Harry added, trying to diffuse the situation.

The space between the two was broken as Natsu landed face first in the dirt while trying to flee Lisanna's worried nagging. A few of the people who'd been watching the terse conversation laughed at the fire mage's antics and returned to their meals as the tension broke somewhat.

"That hurt!" Natsu announce as he jumped to his feet. He seemed to be directing his anger over falling at the white haired girl.

Lisanna blinked. "I didn't do anything!" she protested, starting another round of bickering.

The rest of Fairy Tail dispersed, finding the thought of food of drink more appealing than Natsu's usual antics.

Harry picked up the cup of tea he'd been nursing and took a sip, turning away from the small guild master in doing so. It was an obvious sign of dismissal. Erza felt the rising urge to laugh. She couldn't recall the last time she'd seen someone turn away from an angry Makarov. The man emitted some seriously dangerous energy when he got worked up. It made most men quiver in their boots.

"Take a seat if you'd like." Harry said, not bothering to look over. "I promise I don't bite."

Makarov seemed to weigh his choices for a moment before crossing the short distance and taking a seat directly across from the mysterious man.

Harry set down the cup he was holding and offered a charming smile.

"Oh! It's you!"

Harry blinked. It seemed he'd only just been noticed by Lisanna who had a foot on a grumbling Natsu's back.

"Do you two know each other?" Makarov asked, eyes traveling between the two.

"Not particularly." Harry shook his head.

"We met in the clinic." Lisanna announced cheerfully. "He was the one who helped Wendy."

That earned Harry a lingering look of evaluation.

"You seem to have a habit of running into my children." Makarov said edgily.

Harry smiled. "Your children seem to have a knack for getting themselves wrapped up in odd situations."

Despite the old man's tension he let out a sigh at that statement. He couldn't deny his guild had a penchant for being involved in anything remotely odd that happened in Fiore.

"Unfortunately, I have the same knack." Harry continued after a moment of thought. "It seems that in the very least, that much hasn't changed over time." The last part of his statement was more directed toward his own amusement than any sort of explanation. He still remembered vividly Mcgonagall accusing him and his friends of always being at the center of things happening at his school.

"He seemed to know Lucy pretty well. Isn't that right Lucy?" Natsu was sitting in the dirt now nodding at the blonde girl that had been passing them all with an empty plate in her hands.

She jumped as Natsu called her name and turned nervously to laugh. "W-we don't really know each other that well."

"That's a lie. They're in looooove."

Harry shot a glance at the strangely annoying blue cat. He was pretty sure at least seventy five percent of the things he'd said in Harry's presence at this point had been jokes about Lucy being in love with him. He'd seemed oddly fixated on the blonde's love life.

"That's weird." Natsu's head tilted to the side as he looked between Harry and Lucy.

"What do you mean Natsu?" Makarov was frowning, intently following the conversation.

"It's nothing Natsu, really." Lucy shook her hand in a dismissive manner but she was starting to look nervous and Makarov took note of that. His shoulders tensed.

"Well, I mean, even the future you recognized him." Natsu said looking Lucy square in the eyes with a contemplative but completely clueless look on his face. He clearly wasn't reading the 'shut up' vibes emanating from his friend. "And you didn't really look happy to see him."

"N-no… that's… I was just…" Lucy stumbled for a reason for her behavior.

"It's alright Lucy." Harry calmly sipped from his cup. "It's not a secret. Where I come from I mean."

Lucy blinked rapidly and she looked a little pale at those words. It was a curious reaction. Erza's lips tugged downward in a curious frown.

"Where you come from?" Makarov repeated the words, leaning forward with interest. "What exactly do you mean by that?"

Harry met his eyes easily. "I learned that your people developed a name for my home, 'The Infinity clock'." Harry made air quotes around the name. He continued talking, not realizing the silence that had fallen over the immediately surrounding area. "A bit grand of a name really. Much better than 'magic amplification unit'. Then I can't say my people were ever good with naming things. I mean 'hinkypunks' they don't sound threatening at all."

He opened his eyes upon concluding his rant to find every one of the Fairy Tail wizards nearby staring him down like he'd just admitted to throwing infants from windows. He blinked.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"Lucy?" Makarov sounded livid.

"Y-yes?" she almost shouted the question as she snapped to attention before her guild master.

"You didn't make any deals while in the clock? None at all?"

Harry had the decency to look offended. "I'm not a parasite, and I'm sitting right here." He scoffed. "Honestly, people these days. So…"

His hand traveled to his shoulder only to halt as it touched the rumpled material of his waist coat. He blinked several times before standing abruptly and letting out a yell of surprise.

Makarov reeled back, as did anyone standing within five feet of him.

"My bag!" Harry patted his back like it would appear if he searched hard enough.

Makarov stared at him, bewildered.

"I left it in the cave!" the idea seemed to dawn on him and that's all it took. He was off in a heartbeat. He didn't seem to care that they were mid discussion, or that he'd yet to win the trust of the wizards who'd been questioning him.

Makarov turned his gaze on Lucy before letting out a sigh. Too much had happened that day. His guild needed rest, but he couldn't very well let the matter drop. He needed to make sure all his guildmates, his children, were safe.

He stood, and as he did he saw Erza do the same out of the corner of his eye. Natsu burst into laughter as Makarov set his sights on Lucy once more.

"I like that guy!" Natsu said with a giant grin.

Lucy gave the fire mage a quick, uneasy glance before following her guild master who was beckoning.

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"Accio bag!" Harry said for about the billionth time to no avail. A lot of the underground tunnels had collapsed during the fighting. It seemed his bag had been unfortunate enough to get trapped down the proverbial rabbit hole. He'd last used it when he'd helped Erza with her ankle. So he was circling the area he figured it should be around. He wouldn't have bothered with it if his whole life wasn't in the damned thing.

He kicked a rock and watched it tumble down the pile he was standing atop.

"Accio bag." He tried again. He blinked. Was it just his mind playing trick on him or had he seen a rock shift?

He jumped down from his vantage point and stalked closer to where he thought he'd seen movement.

"Accio bag!"

Yes! There was certainly a slight shift in the rubble. He pulled rocks away from the spot until he reached a rather large one that was blocking his progress. He vanished it with a simple spell and there, beneath it was what he'd been searching for. His satchel looked a bit rougher than it had a few hours before but he was sure everything within was fine.

He dusted it off and heaved a sigh of relief.

A few pebbles falling from above was the only indicator that he was no longer alone. He glanced up, curious who was watching him. Their presence wasn't familiar, but neither did it seem threatening. His eyes landed on an old woman. She seemed to have stumbled across him entirely by chance if the surprised look on her face was anything to go by.

Harry climbed out of his hole just in time to catch her as she stumbled. "Are you alright? You didn't get caught in the fighting did you?"

"I suppose you could say that." She replied wearily.

Harry blinked. He'd just realized she was wearing clothing that was… well… uniquely unfitting for an older woman. A skin tight spandex body suit that was cut just a bit too provocatively to not be intentional, but more than the clothing her energy shocked him. The skin contact left him reeling. This wasn't an old woman. And she wasn't weak by any means even if she had used quite a bit of her energy tonight.

Harry steadied her and then released her arm quickly. He turned his eyes to the moon which was providing ample light for them. "I don't know much about this country's fashion trends, I'll admit. But most old ladies don't wear clothing like that."

She looked down at her own body as if only now realizing what she was wearing. She swung the cape that had been hanging over her shoulders so that it covered a bit more of her body.

"You have to have done something stupid to have aged so rapidly." He said, looking back her with a small smile. He knew a lot about doing stupid things. It was sort of his life story.

"I've made a lot of mistakes in my life." She conceded. "I'm not sure this was one of them."

"Oh?" he hummed. "Not a curse then. Something intentional?"

The thought clicked and he turned inquisitive eyes on her.

"Are you the one who turned back time tonight?"

The question seemed to bring her pause, almost as though she thought no one had noticed her deeds. But then she gave him a small smile. "You guessed that quickly?"

"Time is something I'm intimately familiar with." He said plopping himself onto a smooth rock. He patted the surface next to him. "Join me."

She seemed wary at first but gave in. She looked tired. She probably needed the rest more than he did, and he certainly needed some rest.

"You gave up a lot to accomplish what you did."

"Not as much as you would think." She disagreed.

Harry hummed again in response.

"And still I was only able to turn back time but a minute."

"You're wondering if it was worth it." Harry said not meeting her gaze.

She laughed, a cynical sound. "My master warned me for years that this branch of magic wasn't worth learning. He told me I would be a fool if I ever attempted what I did tonight… I was a fool. I was arrogant. I thought that my power would be enough to atone for my sins. But it was my power that led to my sins in the first place."

"Your power turned back time but a minute, true." She turned to him curiously. "But a minute in the heat of battle is a long time. Men live or die in mere moments in the midst of fighting. How many countless people do you think a full minute could have saved?"

She stared awe struck at the man she'd never met before. These were the words she needed to hear, even if she had no idea before this moment that she did. She swallowed back the lump in her throat that threatened tears. Only one person deserved those tears now. Perhaps two, but she would not let Meredy see her this way.

"There are ways…" Harry said turning finally to look at her. "To reverse the damage done by the magic. They are old, and they are difficult, but they do exist."

She shook her head. "I've caused too much pain in this life already." She swallowed again. "Let me leave this world having done something worthwhile."

"If that is your wish." He acknowledged, pushing himself up. "But I would change your clothes. You'll draw attention like that no matter how short your time left on this Earth."

She paused at the odd phrasing. "Your name." she said watching as he eased on his bag. "I never caught it."

"A name for a name?" he asked with a bright smile. "Even if you don't want my help, I can carry on the knowledge of who you were."

She hesitated, but conceded with a nod. What harm would a name do at this point? "Ultear."

"Harry."

She nodded, the strange name suited the strange man.

"I wish you luck Ultear." He said gingerly stepping on an elevated rock and pushing himself up. "With whatever time you have left."

She watched him go with a bit more contentment in her heart than she'd had before they'd talked. For that, she was thankful for their chance encounter even if it left her wondering if maybe she shouldn't be seeking a solution.

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Makarov sat thinking as Lucy fidgeted nervously. Erza stood silent as a sentry but there was a deep frown etched into her usually passive face. Lucy was beginning to think she'd done something terribly wrong.

"Lucy…"

The girl snapped to attention. "Y-yes, Master Makarov?"

Makarov sighed. "It's okay. There's no need to be nervous." He said giving her a half hearted smile.

She returned it nervously nonetheless.

"Tell me about the man who was here earlier." He said rubbing his temples slowly.

"I… I don't know much, honestly." She waved her hands frantically.

"So tell me what you do know. He mentioned the Infinity Clock."

She nodded a bit more slowly this time. "That's where I met him. He was inside the clock. When I was pulled in and no one could see me, he was the one I was talking to."

"What did he say?"

"Not much really." She shook her head. "He said he was the keeper of the clock. That he was there to protect it. He… he said the clock wasn't built to destroy anything like the Oraceon Seis wanted."

"Did he ask you to do anything? To take anything with you when you left?"

She shook her head. "He said that when they put me into the clock they had fused me with something called the ether and that if I stayed for too long I would be like him."

"Like him?" Makarov focused in on the phrasing.

She nodded. "Part of the clock."

Makarov frowned.

"I told him I didn't want to be part of the clock so he asked what I did want and I told him I wanted to go back to normal." She shivered. "He said… that that would be hard to do."

Makarov could see the memories were still fresh in the girl's head despite happening months ago. "What happened then?"

"He asked me if my dream was fulfilled."

"Your dream?"

"I told him I wanted to help my friends. So he protected Natsu while he was fighting Nightmare."

Makarov motioned for her to continue.

"I… um… I told I didn't understand what he meant… and uh… oh, he asked me if the clock was still necessary."

"Necessary for what?"

"I don't know." She shook her head. "He didn't explain. Then he said he would grant my wish. The next thing I knew I was falling and the clock was breaking apart."

"And you haven't seen him again until today?"

She nodded vehemently.

He seemed lost in thought. Erza seemed to be thinking as well.

"But you know…" the two looked up. "He didn't seem bad. And he broke the clock apart so that I could go back to normal. Doesn't that make him good?"

"We can only hope Lucy." Makarov sighed. "We can only hope."


	8. Hellos and Goodbyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Harry picks up a new traveling companion.

"Kosmos."

The pink haired girl turned at her name. Standing behind her was the man she'd met just hours before. His green eyes gleamed in the moonlight. She wanted to ask how he'd found her, but it seemed inconsequential. She turned back to the destruction that lay before her. Her city lay in ruins, and she had let it happen in a way. Her whole team had by preventing the only guild that had actively been working against this tragedy from doing their job.

She sighed, watching the flickering firelight of the campfires erected by the groups of wizards that had helped save what little of the city still stood. The vague outlines of solitary buildings stood amongst the rubble in some places. 

"I've never questioned my orders before." She said not turning to look, but knowing he had joined her side on the cliff face. "My oath was to king and country, and all knights, even executioners are supposed to take their oaths seriously."

"You did."

"I did." She agreed.

"But?"

She felt the frown tug at her lips. "The deaths of innocents… are not beautiful." She said, her eyes never leaving the fires.

"No… I suppose they're not." He acquiesced.

"I nearly killed that girl, Wendy. If you had not intervened, I might have."

"You were under orders?"

"I was." She scowled. "A knight must never question orders."

"You're supposed to believe that your commanding officer knows the situation better than you and is acting accordingly." Harry continued for her. She just stared into the distance. "But you have doubts."

"Many." She conceded with a small nod. "Perhaps not so many before, but now..."

"Hmm…"

She finally turned his way. "There is a celebratory ball tomorrow night. The king has invited all wizards who helped defend the city. That includes you."

"You want me to go?" he asked, somewhat surprised.

She twirled a bit of hair around her finger. "I did not know how to find you. It was… troublesome."

"Troublesome?" he laughed just a bit. "If you want me to go I will. I have no reason not to."

"Good."

She turned back to the city, eyes casting over its darkened shapes up then up to the bright night sky. "Even like this. The capital is beautiful."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lucy laughed along with the rest of Fairy Tail as Natsu bounced about the dance hall that had miraculously survived the fighting. There was a proper feast being thrown to thank the wizarding guilds that had helped save Crocus. The king himself was here, and the princess was looking a bit downtrodden, but well. She was afraid some of her more rambunctious guild mates might end up giving Makarov a heart attack before the night was through though. The city had seen enough destruction in the last two days and Makarov was clearly worried they might end up adding to some of the needed repairs.

"The food isn't half bad."

Lucy startled from her thoughts at the familiar voice. Harry was beside her holding a plate that was heaping to the brim with all sorts of food. She stared at it with disgust. Why did all the men she knew have to be such pigs?

She blinked a few times and took a step back. "So you're still here?" she asked looking around. Makarov didn't seem to be paying them any mind yet, or at least it didn't appear so. Erza seemed to be the only one who'd spotted her new conversation partner, and though a small frown tugged at the red head's lips she made no move to intercept them. Though she doubted Erza could get to her too quickly anyway as she had several men vying for her attention and they were blocking her path considerably well.

Lucy focused back in only to find the man popping the last grape from his plate into his mouth and letting out a contented sigh.

"I figured you would have skipped town after the reception from Fairy Tail." She half joked.

He tilted his head to the side as he set his empty plate down. "Someone asked me to attend the ball this evening or I most likely would have left town. Was the reception particularly hostile? Most of your guild mates seemed warm enough. Was I misreading them? I never was good with people, even in my youth, and my time in the clock certainly hasn't helped. Why, just this afternoon I frightened a young girl by asking if she'd seen my trousers. Mind you I was wearing trousers at the time, I'd just misplaced a spare set."

"Uh… huh…" She tried to meld the man standing in front of her with the over serious apparition she'd met in the clock and it simply wasn't easy to do. He was far more carefree than she'd ever have pictured the man she met could be.

"The Garou knights!"

Lucy's head bolted in the direction the voice had come from. The group of knights were indeed standing near the entrance. They looked much the same as they had when they'd run across the executioners in the caves beneath the city. All looked happier now, and no one seemed to be about to attack so she let the tense set of her shoulders fall.

"Did you come for a fight?!" Natsu didn't seem at all like he was tense at the prospect of fighting the group. Rather he seemed eager.

"No, no. We're here as guests the same as you." Their leader waved his hands dismissively.

Lucy saw the pink haired girl who'd fought Wendy looking around until her eyes fell on Lucy. A small smile flashed across the girl's stoic face and Lucy felt a chill run down her spine at it. Had she somehow gained an admirer? Her face heated. Oh, the woes of being an attractive young mage in a powerful guild! 

"It does seem, that after much talking within the group though…" their leader continued, drawing attention. "Your grace. We have a request of you."

Silence reigned over the hall as the king turned from his talking and festivities to look at his knights. "Yes, friend, what can I do for you on this night?"

Kama knelt and lowered his head, a sign of subservience to his king. "One of our number wishes to be relieved of her vows, your grace."

"Is that so?" the king said with some shock. Knight's vows were usually taken for life and it was a great honor to be knighted at all. Whispering broke out amongst the hall.

There were only two women among the five. He turned his attention to them. The pink haired girl stepped forward and knelt as well, but she raised her head to meet his eyes. "It is, my grace." She said softly.

He watched her for a long moment before smiling. "Knighthood is not meant to be an imprisonment." He said offering her a hand. "Stand then."

Kosmos hesitated, but took the offered hand and stood.

"You're young. I understand the will to experience the new and exciting things in this world." He clapped her on the shoulder. "Live a long and prosperous life."

Kosmos bowed at that, and the king turned back to his revelries as people clapped politely.

Lucy hear Harry laugh lowly beside her. "So that's what she wanted." He said, confusing the blonde.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

She didn't get an answer as the strange man was already making his way across the room toward the pink haired, former knight.

"Haaarrrrryyy!" the excited scream came out of nowhere, but a flaming fist descended from the upper balconies toward Harry. "Fight me!"

Harry caught the flaming fist and twisted it behind the traveling body of Natsu Dragneel. With a push the flame mage stumbled, trying to keep his feet. He whipped around excitedly as soon as he'd caught his balance.

"Why would I fight you?" Harry asked, bewildered.

"I heard you were strong." Natsu said with a smirk. "Someone told me you and Erza took out a dragon. I want to see that for myself. Or are you a chicken?"

Harry's eyes went wide and he swung his arms back and forth. "That's really not a good idea. Especially not inside. I mean, you fight with fire for Merlin's sake!"

Harry narrowly dodged a flaming punch to the face.

"I knew you were chicken! Fight me!" Natsu yelled with fervor.

"Natsu! Knock it off!" Lucy yelled, exasperated.

"That's enough!"

A giant hand swung down and flattened an eager Natsu to the floor. Makarov's booming voice echoed through the hall so that even those that had somehow remained ignorant to the skirmish now couldn't help but pay attention.

Natsu's leg twitched as the hand lifted.

"We're guests here. Act like it!" Makarov finished.

If Harry looked bewildered before he looked absolutely gob smacked now. Then, in an instant, the shock turned into peals of laughter. It didn't take long before most of the hall joined Harry in his mirth. Natsu had the decency to look abashed when he eventually removed himself from the floor though it didn't stop him from promising to fight Harry at some point. Harry took the comment in stride, but asked that it not be done in the midst of a civilian ball. And certainly not while Natsu was wearing his good clothes.

"You seem to cause quite a commotion wherever you go."

Harry turned to see Kosmos. She was wearing her normal clothing. Apparently dressing up for the ball wasn't something any of the garou knights had thought to do as they were all still in their combat gear.

Harry smiled. "It's a habit I can't seem to get rid of."

She nodded knowingly, but fidgeted.

He smiled at the nervousness of the girl next to him. "You made quite a show of being un-knighted." He said turning to watch the multitudes of wizards dancing and acting like fools. "I suppose you had a reason?"

She nodded mutely. "I want… to travel." She finally managed. "I've never seen much outside of Crocus, but surely there are more beautiful places in the world."

"That there are." Harry agreed.

"I want…" she stopped. She was blushing furiously when Harry turned to her and he was quite taken aback by it. "I want to travel… with you."

He blinked. Saying he looked astonished would probably have been an understatement. He'd never had a girl be so blunt with him. Or maybe he was misunderstanding something?

"Are you… " he started, then cleared his throat. "Are you sure? We've only just met. Surely there's someone you know more that would make a better companion?"

There was heat in her vivid green eyes when they met his and he waved off the suggestion with an immediate apology.

He laughed nervously as she muttered something about confessions not being beautiful under her breath. Still, he coughed. He didn't much care if she tagged along. Though he wasn't really sure where he'd go from here. He'd intended to go back to Magnolia, at least for a while. Maybe he'd put that off. Maybe he'd go back to the North with his new traveling companion. He'd found the endless blankets of pure white snow drift beautiful, surely she would too.

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"Do you have everything you need?" Harry asked for the millionth time.

Kosmos just nodded as she stepped out of the door to a partially still standing cottage. Apparently she'd shared it with her fellow female knight. The place was absolutely covered in plant growth even after all the destruction. He wondered if some of those vines were integral to the foundation of the structure at this point. He supposed the only way to truly find out would be to kill the plant and see if the building still stood. Somehow he knew even speculating about it out loud would have garnered him a heated glare from his new companion.

His eyes traveled up the winding but sparse street. In the distance lights flickered across the desolate landscape. If he concentrated he could just make out the twirling forms of the partying mages. Harry was never much for large social gatherings like balls. He and Kosmos had ducked out shortly after his exchange with Natsu. He figured removing himself from the building would probably be the only way to keep the fire mage from trying to start something again.

"Harry, wasn't it."

Harry blinked, turning. On the darkened street corner behind him stood the wizened form of Makarov. Beside him stood Erza, her eyes were sharp as she surveyed the scene. She certainly was an intense human being. Harry couldn't help the smile that tugged at his lips.

"That it was." He nodded as Kosmos trudged to his side.

"Makarov Dreyar." The guild master gave Harry a small nod in return.

"The third time's the charm I suppose." Harry smiled, trying to show he held no ill will despite their less than pleasant meetings in the past. "What can I do for you tonight Makarov?"

Makarov turned serious eyes on Kosmos, then back to Harry. The message was obvious 'do you want to have this conversation in front of her', or perhaps more clearly 'do you trust her'? Harry's answer was the same either way. He gave a succinct shrug. He didn't really foresee the small man having anything to say to him that he wouldn't want someone else to know. His life since stepping out of the clock was pretty much an open book, and the chances of him knowing something about Harry's old life were pretty much non existent.

Makarov sighed. "I suppose…" he started, then turned a grin on the green eyed man obviously startling him. "I owe you an apology."

"Do you?"

"I can be a bit over bearing when it comes to my kids." Makarov rubbed the back of his head.

"Overbearing might be a good word for it." Harry agreed, nodding.

"As I understand it, you saved a few of them when the going got tough."

Harry looked to Erza, was she one of Makarov's 'kids'? He wasn't sure he could justify using that term to identify her. She was young, sure. Harry was certain anyone else using the noun 'kid' to define her would have been thrown through a window though. "No thanks are necessary if that's what this is." Harry said awkwardly. "They sort of helped me too."

"Nonsense."

Harry blinked as Erza finally spoke up.

"Without your help we certainly wouldn't have taken down one of the dragons. Who knows how many countless people could have lost their lives."

"Ehheh…" Harry rubbed his head, unsure where this was going.

"The point is…" Makarov refocused Harry's attention on him and the old man's eyes were blazing with some emotion Harry couldn't quite figure out. "Fairy Tail takes threats to its members very seriously. And we keep those we care about safe."

"Admirable." Harry nodded, unsure. It sounded like he was offhandedly accusing Harry of being a threat at some point. Harry couldn't say he really identified himself that way. He couldn't recall actively threatening any of their members.

"The Master is having a hard time saying he'd like you to join the guild." Erza had a no nonsense look written on her face and her arms were crossed as she stared Harry down.

"Eh…. Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….." was Harry's articulate response. His body betraying him by making inarticulate noises while he tried to process the odd change in direction the conversation had taken.

Kosmos turned curious, but mellow eyes to her companion.

Harry finally seemed to shake himself out of the stupor. "Oh, ah… umm… wow. I appreciate the offer. Really. But I'm not… I'm not really sure."

Makarov nodded, almost as if he'd expected the response. "Well, the offer is open."

"I'll keep that in mind." Harry, tilted his head to the side just a bit. "Is there anything else? It's late but we were planning to hit the road tonight."

"Take this." Erza tossed a pendant to him and he caught it with one hand just inches from his face. "We're located in Magnolia… in case you change your mind."

"Right…" Harry stared at the small pendant. It was a weird little symbol seemingly made out of iron. He recognized it as Fairy Tail's guild crest. How odd that the guild he'd become so intertwined with was in the very town he'd promised to return to.

Makarov and Erza watched as the two traveling companions receded down the road into the gloom of night. Once she was sure they were out of earshot she turned to her master.

"Do you really think he could be dangerous?" she asked. All friendliness was gone from her voice. She'd seen the man lay waste to a dragon with her help, but that wasn't the sort of danger she was concerned with. Makarov wouldn't be trying to keep tabs on the mage if he wasn't concerned that he might be a danger to the guild itself, but he wouldn't try to recruit the man if he was worried he'd actively try to harm members. It was a weird thing that Makarov had just done. She wasn't entirely sure she understood the dynamics of it.

Makarov sighed and shook his head. "I hope not." He turned tired eyes on the red head. "It would certainly be nice not to have yet another threat to our guild."

Erza smiled wanly. They did attract a bit more trouble than the average guild for sure.

"For now, we just hope nothing comes of this." He began to walk back in the direction of the ball intent on getting his eyes back on a certain fire mage before he could do any more damage to the ballroom.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Do we really need a carriage?" Harry bemoaned the spending of what little money he had, but Kosmos had insisted on a carriage. She sat primly on the seat across from him ignoring his whining about unnecessary spending. Instead she focused her gaze outward at the slowly passing, lightening landscape. They'd rode through what little of the night remained and were nearly on the border of the mountain range that surrounded the capital now. He knew she'd never really been far out of the capital and so he relented with a sigh when she'd insisted.

"There's a woman in the road." Kosmos commented.

Surely enough there was. An old woman was perched near the side of the road. She didn't seem to be heading anywhere in particular. In fact she was standing quite still as if waiting for something. She didn't have any supplies with her either so it was unlikely she'd just gotten lost. Their carriage slowed minutely as they approached her. Harry could see their driver watching the old woman somewhat warily. After the night Crocus just had Harry could understand his apprehension.

The woman lifted her face when they were just a few yards away and Harry's curiosity only grew a bit stronger. She'd gotten herself some more age appropriate clothing but this was definitely Ultear, the young woman turned old that had stumbled upon him in the city wreckage. She didn't seem surprised to see the carriage heading her way.

They slowed a bit further as the driver grew uncertain. Harry stood and leaned out of the window. He eyed Ultear for a moment as recognition dawned on her face. "I didn't think I'd see you this far from the city. Did you need a ride?" he asked cordially, a bit of a smile on his face. But he was fighting the urge to frown. She didn't have long left now. Days? Hours maybe. He could feel her life force draining like so many ticks on a clock. He felt his gaze drift and go a bit hazy before refocusing as she shook her head.

"I'm waiting for someone." She answered with an air of finality. He was aware that she'd probably put quite a bit of conscious effort into making the decision of how to spend her final days. If he could sense her impending doom certainly she should be able to.

He tilted his head to the side and gave her a bit of a smile. "If you're certain."

She nodded but gave him a genuine smile this time. It lacked the self pity he'd seen in it before. She seemed to have accepted her fate. Maybe she'd found some reason behind her sacrifice. Maybe his words had been enough. It wasn't exactly polite to go about asking why someone was suddenly comfortable with the idea of their own death, so Harry decided it was probably best not to ask where her comfort stemmed from.

Harry hadn't called for the driver to stop and so they were well passed her now but her eyes were still set on their carriage. It wasn't like there was much else to look at on the lonely stretch of road.

"I hope you meet who you're waiting for." Harry called back with a wave.

She waved a bit in response before Harry ducked back into the carriage and retook his seat.

"A friend?" Kosmos asked, just a spark of curiosity in her eyes.

Harry shook his head. "Not really…" he mulled the term over. "An acquaintance maybe."

Kosmos nodded in acceptance and went back to watching the countryside.

Harry rubbed his head. A tiny headache was brewing in his temples. He yawned.

"It's a long way to Hargeon." Kosmos said, looking his way with a knowing smile.

He nodded. It was the only carriage they could get and it was going a terribly long way. All the way to the train lines.

"Maybe some sleep would be a good idea." Harry conceded.


	9. Cursed Souls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Harry crushes a small child.

Careless whistling filled the air as the duo of mages walked down the road. Trees hedged the view so one could only see directly ahead or directly behind one's self for about a hundred yards before the elevated path turned slightly and seemed to dissolve back into the underbrush.

"Do you always have to be so relentlessly cheerful?" The pink haired girl asked calmly, though a tinge of exasperation leaked into the normally monotonous voice. She had calmed quite a bit since their first meeting beneath the streets on Crocus, and while she had opened up a bit more about herself in some ways she also seemed far more mellow than she had allowed herself to act in the capital. Harry turned curious eyes to his companion. Only now did he realize she had a tinge of pink to her cheeks and she was wiping sweat from her brow. She looked distinctly uncomfortable despite the air verging towards the cool side. They were nearing the border of Fiore and its neighbor had much less temperate climates. The best he could figure was that she still wasn't accustomed to the long walks that were necessary to move from place to place in this world without the modern transportation he remembered from his days before entering the clock. He was sure she would have given every belonging she owned for a chance to ride in a taxi right about now.

He slowed down and gave her a grin. That seemed to be a mistake though. The moment he took his eyes from the road he missed a step. His foot slid in the loose gravel as he tried to maintain his position. He lost to gravity though and tumbled to his right straight down the rocky hill and through a thicket of bushes with a yelp of surprise.

He groaned as he removed himself from the sharp branches. But his stop had been softer than he'd have suspected almost as if… he stopped as his hand pushed into something soft. He blinked. Beneath his hand was the stomach of a young girl. Her closed eyes and the small cut on her forehead told him that he'd probably taken her out during his accidental crash. He jumped up immediately, careful not to cause any more damage.

"Are you alright?" Kosmos almost sounded like she didn't mind if he was injured, as long it meant she didn't have to walk anymore.

"I'm fine." Harry assured her anyway. "But I think we might need some help anyway."

He saw Kosmos hesitate at that. The trees must have been blocking the young girl from her view. The pink haired girl heaved a sigh, but slid elegantly down the steep decline to his side. She spotted the girl, took a look at Harry's face, and then heaved another sigh.

Harry knelt next to the girl. She couldn't have been more than ten. Certainly not old enough to go traveling through the woods without a guardian. He tapped her face gently trying to rouse her.

"This will work better." Kosmos said and before he could so much as ask what she meant she had upended her canister of water on the poor girl's face. It certainly had the intended effect. The girl shot forward ramming Harry's nose with her forehead. He reeled back clutching his face and she did the same with hers. Kosmos looked caught somewhere between alarm and amusement.

Harry gingerly tapped his nose. Just a small bit of blood had been produced but it had still hurt. He turned concerned eyes on the girl who was openly crying as she clutched her head.

"Are you okay?" he asked gently. "I seem to have rolled into you earlier. I hope I didn't hurt you."

The girl peeked one brown eye out from between her fingers. She looked almost hopeful at his kind words. "I'm not… really supposed to talk to strangers."

He sat down cross legged in front of her. "Strangers?" he said the word with contempt. "Nonsense. I rolled over you in a forest. We're not strangers any more. Maybe enemies, but not strangers."

Kosmos gave him a disbelieving look, but the joke had the intended effect. The girl laughed a bit.

"Now then, are you hurt?" he asked again. "It'd be dishonorable to leave my enemy injured in the middle of a forest."

"I think I'm," she started to stand but cried out as she put pressure on her left foot. Now that he looked it did seem a bit discolored. Perhaps it was bruising.

Harry frowned, leaning forward. "May I?" he gestured to the foot.

The girl looked like she wanted to withdraw the appendage but she held still as he took it gently in his hands. He muttered a soft spell and the two females in the forest watched as a small light enveloped the foot before fading.

"You should be able to walk now." He said releasing her foot. "I wouldn't overdo it though."

The girl flexed her foot in amazement. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He said standing. He looked to the sky through a break in the trees. "Do you live near here? It's nearly night, you should be getting home."

The girl frowned and shook her head. The question had somehow upset her.

"You shouldn't be alone in the woods at night." Kosmos spoke up. "It's dangerous."

"I can defend myself!" the girl lashed out, obviously not liking what Kosmos had said. Perhaps she didn't want to be considered weak.

"Of course you can." Harry mediated. "But you're welcome to accompany us to the next town. We can always use an extra set of hands to help fight off the wolves."

"Wolves?" the girl's eyes grew large.

"Oh yeah, they're everywhere around here." Harry nodded.

"Well maybe… just for a day or two." She said not meeting their eyes.

"Wolves?" Kosmos muttered to Harry as he stood and the wizard shrugged, giving her a small smile. He'd always liked children and he wasn't about to abandon one for being stubborn even if it meant twisting the truth a bit and lying about some wolves.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"HOT!" Harry exclaimed, nearly throwing the mug away from himself in his haste to separate himself from the source of his pain. "Hothothothothot!"

He blew on his scalded fingers while Kosmos took a patient sip from her own drink. She'd come to learn that Harry was a bit more of a klutz in non life threatening situations than one might think upon first meeting him, especially if you met him in the heat of battle like Kosmos had. He was constantly zoning out while they walked and stepping in pot holes. Twice they'd had to double back because he'd forgotten his bag at stops they'd made along the way. No one ever seemed to steal from him though, which Kosmos would have counted as lucky if she didn't heavily suspect that he had done something to prevent it.

"Are you alright?" the young girl who was sharing their camp that night seemed concerned.

"Ahaha…" Harry laughed off the worry. "I'm fine. I'm fine."

The girl seemed sated with that, though she did shoot one last glance at his pink fingers.

"Suki? Right?" Harry asked politely reacquiring his mug and dumping the last remnants of coffee from it before rinsing it with a splash from his canteen.

She nodded, nursing a mug as well, though hers held soup.

"You seem a bit young to be out here traveling alone, don't you think?" Harry said refilling his cup and paying a bit more attention to his efforts this time.

She drew her knees closer to her chest and at best Harry would have described her expression as 'evasive'.

"Ah…" Harry threw his hands up. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

Unsure eyes flicked to the raised hands.

"He has a habit of asking prying questions without thought." Kosmos took another sip of her drink, ignoring the scandalized look on Harry's face.

"They're not without thought!" he defended. 

"Doesn't that make it worse?" she shot back.

Suki laughed just a bit at their antics and Harry faltered in his half-hearted anger.

"My mom said… I was supposed to go West until I reached another town." Suki wasn't really looking at either of them. She was watching the camp fire with a look of melancholy.

"West?" Kosmos looked back in the direction they'd come from. "The nearest village is at least three more days by foot."

"That's quite a distance for her to send you alone." Harry agreed. Suki shielded her head from view. "I'm… sure she had her reasons though."

"Wouldn't it have been easier to go East?" Kosmos spoke up. "There's not much along Fiore's Western border but Seven and Bosco both have a few settlements."

"NO!" Suki exploded. "They're both…!"

Kosmos blinked as the girl trailed off, seemingly unable to finish the thought.

Harry sighed. He'd seen bad blood between countries before. "It's fine. We are traveling East though." He announced and watched the frustration make Suki's face pinch further. "Was there a reason you needed to get to another town? We could bring you back to your home."

"I was…" she looked back to the fire. "I can't go home."

Silence filled their campsite. Kosmos seemed perfectly fine with it. She was easily able to brush things off in a way Harry had rarely seen from people in the past. She was exceedingly adaptable.

"We could go back West then." Harry offered. He wouldn't feel right parting ways with an injured child in the middle of a secluded forest. "We could take you to Clover Town. It's not as far as Kosmos makes it sound."

Kosmos gave him an incredulous look, probably because she very much didn't appreciate having to walk back the way they'd just come for a third time.

"No… I…" Suki started tearing up. She looked incredibly torn.

"It's fine." Harry said hands up in a placating manner. "There's no need to make a decision tonight. We all need some rest. And some time off your foot will do wonders for it. Let's all head to bed."

"I'll stay up a bit longer." Kosmos offered, shifting just a bit so she had her back firmly against a tree.

Harry knew she intended to keep watch but didn't want to say as much with already skittish child hanging about. He'd wake up in a few hours and offer to trade with her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Harry."

It couldn't have been more than three hours since he'd laid his head down that he was being gently shaken awake by Kosmos.

"Wha is it?" he murmured sleepily. "Wha's wrong?"

"Someone's coming this way." She said, voice just as bleak as ever.

He was more awake instantly. "Travelers?"

She shook her head. "They're cutting through the forest. They're looking for something."

Harry's eyes turned to Suki. "Or someone."

Kosmos had doused their campfire at some point while he'd been asleep but it was possible the light had drawn these people to them. Only time would tell if they had ill intentions.

"Wake her quietly." He said nodding to Suki's sleeping form. "We probably need to move."

Kosmos moved to wake the girl while he gathered their belongings in the dim light. He heard a crunch behind him and turned to see Kosmos guiding a tired Suki in his direction.

Further into the forest there was a dull thud and muffled laughter.

Whatever weariness had plagued the girl's face before was gone now, replaced by fear.

Harry knelt so they were eye to eye. "Be honest with me now Suki, I won't be mad. Are there people after you?"

She drew back, clearly frightened. Tears were brimming in her eyes.

"Please Suki, we just want to help."

Her eyes over flowed and she was crying in earnest now, but at least she had the presence of mind not to make a racket. She nodded vehemently though.

"It's okay." He said patting her head and smiling. He twisted and offered her his back. "We're going to run now. Climb on."

She hesitated for just a moment before climbing onto his back and latching her arms around his neck.

"I have the bags." Kosmos confirmed sweeping the satchels from his hand.

"Right." Harry said. "Let's go."

They darted back up the slope and across the path. They kept going until Harry was sure Kosmos was on the verge of collapse and his legs were burning with effort of carrying Suki. They'd have to work on her stamina like he'd had to work on his when he'd first start traveling this world. They could hear nothing in the forest save a few birds chirping in the early morning light. Harry let the girl off of his back and she immediately sat down on the ground, drawing her knees close to her.

"Suki…" Harry grasped the girl's attention. "I need you to tell me what happened. Why are there people after you?"

The girl swallowed thickly. "I don't… I don't really know."

"You don't know?" Kosmos said, just a hint of skepticism coloring the words.

"What do you mean you don't know?" Harry asked with no small amount of confusion.

Suki sniffled. "There's this festival we have every year. T…the village chooses a shrine maiden and then we're supposed to have good luck. But people started saying I cursed the village so mom told me I had to run away."

"I see." Harry groaned and sat heavily on the ground. If these people were trying to kidnap her because she was part of a wealthy family, or because her family had been attacked by bandits, or something of that nature he could deal with it easily. But it wasn't easy to sway public opinion as an outsider, especially not when it involved superstitions.

He glanced to the small girl who looked very much her age now. She was frightened and alone in a giant forest for who knew how long before they stumbled across her. He certainly wouldn't leave her to deal with this on her own. He looked to Kosmos who was watching a nearby tree with an impassive face. He caught her eye and they shared a moment of silent agreement. She nodded and Harry tilted his head to show he understood.

"How far is your village?" he asked Suki, turning back to her.

"About half a day from here." She answered, wide eyed. "Following the road."

Harry frowned. They'd have to avoid the road for now. The men they'd heard had surely stumbled across their abandoned camp by now. They'd be scouring the area looking for them.

"Get some rest for now. We should be safe enough here til morning." He patted Suki's head as he stood.

Suki nodded hesitantly, but took a small pillow that Kosmos offered her and laid down near a tree. She probably wouldn't sleep well after their first scare. The adrenaline would still be pumping.

Harry sat himself down a small distance away, his back to a tree. He looked to Kosmos who was still standing. She'd sat both bags at her feet but didn't seem to really be paying much attention to them. She was staring at the trees again.

"You should get some sleep too." He said startling her from her thoughts.

She turned her turquoise eyes his way and he saw a bit of confusion there.

"What's wrong?"

"The plants…" she said turning back to the tree and putting a hand on its russet bark. "they feel off. Something is swaying their nature."

He wasn't entirely sure what she meant by 'swaying their nature', but coming from someone who seemed so in touch with plants it certainly couldn't be good. She pulled her hand from the tree and moved to her bag. She grabbed a pillow and proceeded to lay down just a few feet from Harry. Whatever was concerning her clearly didn't warrant missing out on an opportunity to sleep in her book.

Harry looked up, watching the sky lighten slowly.

Morning dawned without more conflict. For that Harry was happy, even if he was on the edge of being loopy due to sleep deprivation. Still, Kosmos had needed the rest more than he had. She wasn't accustomed to the travel like he was yet, and she hadn't gotten the few hours he had before they'd had to move camp.

"Up and at 'em." He clapped just a bit too close to Kosmos' ears making her jump out of her sleep with a burst of magic that nearly made a tree root impale him. Suki was already awake having barely slept. She gave a bout of nervous laughter at the sight.

"Let's go sleepy head." Harry said snatching the pillow Kosmos had been using so she couldn't lay back down.

Kosmos pulled herself from the forest floor, hair smashed to the side of her face from a fitful sleep. They really did need to find an inn soon. Cleaning charms only went so far.

"Catch." Harry tossed some bread Kosmos' way. She caught it with one hand while trying to straighten her unmanageable hair with the other. She gave up after a few minutes and simply plopped her cap on top of the unruly mess. "I don't want to chance a fire and tip them off to where we are."

Kosmos nodded chewing on the bread with a mournful glance at the bag she knew the better food was kept in. "Since we're not taking the road we should get moving if we intend to make it to the village before nightfall."

Harry nodded having already gathered their things. He knelt next to Suki. "How's your foot feeling?"

She flexed her ankle and gave him a small smile.

"Good." He grinned standing and offering her a hand. "Let's hit the bricks then."

"Don't mind him." Kosmos passed the two to grab her bag. "He says a lot of odd things."

Suki laughed, it came out just a bit nervous sounding but Harry supposed he couldn't blame her. She probably didn't think she'd have to face the people who had turned against her so soon… if ever. He wondered what the small girl would have done had they not met by chance. Would she have continued on? She hadn't taken any supplies. Was she even resourceful enough to have made it to Clover all alone?

Harry frowned as they started their trek.

They walked for hours, and rested only once around mid-day so everyone could eat and… take care of other business.

"This place looks familiar." Suki said as they entered a small clearing.

Harry perked up. "Does it?" he said hopefully. "Are we close to your village?"

She thought about it for a minute. "Sort of." She looked to their left and pointed at a large pine tree. "If you keep going that way you'll end up on the Mt. Shiro. That's where the shrine is."

Harry's eyes traced a small path that seemed to zigzag through the trees. He could just make out a small lantern set next to the pine. He'd met people of many different religions since he'd woken in this world. He wondered what god this girl's people worshiped.

"If we go that way we'll end up in town." She pointed just slightly off course to their right.

Harry spared one last glance back toward the pine tree before they veered off toward the town.


	10. A Village in Need

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Harry finds a village in need of an ass kicking.

Calling Suki's village a village was sort of an insult to other villages. There were maybe two or three larger buildings surrounded by a spattering of lean to huts and small shanty houses. The place definitely looked worse for wear. Everything was grimy and covered in dirt. Even the clothes on the clothes lines seemed to be coated in filth. Behind the houses, as far as the average eye could see there were fields of dried dirt. It was like every color but brown had been washed out of the place.

"This is not beautiful." Kosmos commented, taking in the sorry state of the place.

Harry couldn't help but agree with her silently. They hadn't even approached the village proper but Suki already looked panicked.

"Those used to be rice paddies." Kosmos said, eying the cracked earth of the fields.

Harry did a double take. Rice took an enormous amount of water to produce. Those fields looked like they'd been in a drought for months. The few plants that still stood were shriveled and pathetic looking. But it was more than that. This place seemed… off. The air felt dry and inhospitable like something was missing. Just being there made Harry feel tired.

Suki herself was clearly extremely nervous. She fidgeted almost endlessly as they drew closer to her home.

"Where are all the people?" Harry wondered aloud. Dust billowed through the streets. The only movement seemed to be the wind.

Kosmos was surveying their surroundings a bit more critically than he was. She stopped quite suddenly and Harry turned just a bit to see why.

"I hope you're ready for a confrontation." She said eyeing a building.

The place clearly wasn't as abandoned as it had first looked. People started emerging from their homes carrying makeshift weapons. They were surrounded in seconds. Harry just held up his hands in a non-threatening 'we mean no harm' sort of way.

One of the men stepped forward. He had a shovel gripped tightly in his calloused hands. "We don't get many strangers this way. That's makes you suspicious from the start. But you walk in here with her?" The anger in his voice as he looked down at the tiny Suki set Harry on edge but he maintained a smile on his face.

"We were just travelling. Stumbled across a young girl in need of help. Thought we'd escort her home." Harry offered a disarming smile.

"Thanks then stranger." The man said nodding to two men behind him. "She's home so hand her over."

Harry could feel Suki draw further behind him. His smile brightened. "Now, now, there's no need to frighten the girl. I'm sure she'd like to see her parents now that she's home."

The guy scoffed. He'd gotten close enough that Harry could smell his acrid breath as it wafted across the short distance between them. Apparently the water shortage was affecting oral health too. One of the guy's thugs tried to edge in to grab Suki and Harry cut him off by simply side stepping a bit and putting himself in the way. "That wouldn't be wise, friend." Harry said, just as jovially as the rest of his speech had been up to now but when he met the man's eyes he could tell them man had received the threat loud and clear. He backed off quickly taking a rake from one of the fellow villagers.

"Give us the girl and you and your friend can leave in peace." Harry turned his attention back to the man who was clearly the leader of the little militia.

"I'm not entirely sure that would be a great idea for Suki. You haven't made your intentions completely clear but I'm betting they're not the best for her."

The man nodded to his friends who levelled their 'weapons' obviously getting ready to attack.

"Protego!" Harry called and shield of mild blue energy flared to life before him. Harry blinked rapidly as little spots swum through his vision for a second, but he ignored it. "Take your best shot." He goaded.

The man with shovel swung hard. For a second he met resistance as the shovel connected with Harry's shield but then it broke through and crashed into Harry's arm and he yelped in pain.

"Okay! Good shot!" Harry admitted, clutching his arm. "A little help Kosmos."

"Nothing will grow here." She might not having been openly freaking out, but she certainly didn't sound like she was okay with that turn of events.

Unfortunately her lack of response formed an opportunity for the rest of the villagers to rush them. They had them pinned in seconds. Suki was yelling her head off.

"That's enough!" Harry boomed and the few people holding him actually flinched. One even removed his hands to shield his ears. Harry realized he must have subconsciously used a mild sonorus charm.

"Expelliarmus!" all the ramshackle weapons flew from the grips of their holders and their attackers lost what little grip they had left of him. Harry sprung up, a little unbalanced. For some reason the relatively simple spells were exhausting right now. Something was certainly messing with the flow of energy in this village.

He put a hand to his head to stop the slow spinning of the world as his assailants tried to regather themselves. Harry placed his foot on the shovel that their leader was about the grab. "Ah!" he warned and the man shot a glare at him. "Sit down."

The man didn't have much say in the action. He dropped like a bag of potatoes against his will.

"Now, just walking through here I can see that you guys are having issues. Your crops are dried out. You clearly have terrible attitudes, and something's gone wonky with the magic around here. But do you seriously believe a child caused all this? I mean your fields must have dried out months ago."

"It happened three days ago." The shovel man said darkly.

Harry looked from the fields back to the man. "Are you kidding? There's no way."

"You think I'd joke about our livelihood?" the man spat. "We were in the middle of the harvest festival and she messed up the dance. The next day our crops were withered, the water was gone, and darkness rained from Mt. Shiro. And then she went missing. We knew her parent's sent her away."

"Darkness…" Harry repeated, completely taken off guard. He let his gaze slip back in the direction they'd walked from earlier before resettling on the angry villager. He let the concern slip from his face, replaced instead by irritation. "You really think missing a step in a dance is going to do all that?"

"What else could have?" the man defended.

Harry wanted scream at the frustrating man. "I don't know. Maybe magic!?" The people of this world knew of the existence of magic, witnessed it on a daily basis in most places, and still somehow refused to think of it as a possibility when something weird happened. "Did you piss off any weird people lately… besides me…?"

There was a nervous shifting in the group. Harry let out a sigh and rubbed his temple. He supposed it was a given that there would be religious nut jobs in any period of time regardless of who they chose to worship.

"Alright," Harry plopped down, startling the man in front of him, "let's just… think for a minute, eh?"

Kosmos pushed herself from the grasp of the villagers and helped Suki to her feet as well. Harry was peeved to see tear tracks on her slightly dirty face.

"Something is warping nature." Kosmos started, but she was turned from Harry looking at the trees that skirted the clearing with the village. "But it's not specific to this place."

Harry gave her a nonplussed look.

The withered grass around Kosmos waved slightly as though moving with the wind, but there had been no wind in that moment. Harry was starting to realize that perhaps Kosmos' powers were a bit more detailed than she let on at first.

"It's stronger here." She looked back at him then and he could see confusion in her eyes. "Like there's something drawing energy here."

"See!" the villager moaned. "We're cursed."

"You're not cursed you ninny." Harry shot back. "The magic is warped here, but you're not cursed."

"H…how do we fix it?" Suki spoke up. She looked hopeful.

All eyes turned to the young girl. Then they turned to Harry. He smiled. "Easy. We un-warp it!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Easy, he says." Kosmos said with a heave before turning irate eyes on Harry. "You have no idea how to 'un-warp it'. You don't even know how it got warped in the first place."

"Nope!" Harry laughed at her exasperated face which just worsened her expression all the further. They were currently seated in a prison cell. Suki was sulking in the corner. She hadn't said a word since they'd been thrown in.

"Keep quiet in there!" someone yelled from the passageway.

"I might not know how it happened, but I can guess where the source is. I'm sure you can too." He said beaming. He almost looked excited.

"Mt. Shiro." came the timid reply from the corner.

Harry turned to Suki who was peeking over her arms. "Right you are." He agreed. "So all we need to do is pull a disappearing act and pop on up to old Mt. Shiro."

Kosmos rolled her eyes.

"Do you think we can really make everything go back to normal?" Suki asked, her voice was ragged from crying.

"Normal is relative." Harry shrugged. "We can try to set the magic back to its balanced state, but there's no telling if it was unbalanced before the ceremony. We'll do what we can."

The answer didn't seem to thrill her, but he wasn't going to make an empty promise. They would go and solve the problem as best they could and hopefully everything would work out beneficially for the village. If not Harry would help the girl's family relocate and the village could fend for itself because they were a large enough group, they'd figure it out. He had little sympathy for adults that blamed their problems on children. He'd seen enough scapegoating when he was a child to know what was happening with this girl.

"If we were just going to break out, why did we let ourselves get captured in the first place." Kosmos was giving him an annoyed glare. She'd had to protect Suki from being torn away from them since they'd jumped Harry first. "Your magic might be acting up like mine, but you still seem to have some power. I'm sure you could have overwhelmed them if you'd tried."

"Sure." Harry agreed. "But they have Suki's parents right?"

Suki's head shot up, a hopeful gleam in her chocolate eyes.

"There can't be many places suitable to hold prisoners. It's a small village, but there was no telling where they were keeping them." Harry nodded to himself. "This way they brought us right to them."

"Smart." Kosmos conceded after a moment even though she was still a bit peeved. They had passed a few barred rooms similar to the one they were in now on the way in. Chances were that Suki's parents were indeed inside one of them.

"We've worked out a plan of attack." Harry stood, brushing dirt from his pants. "I think it's time to put it into action."

"Let's do this." Kosmos agreed.

Suki nodded, moving toward the door.

"Well then…" Harry directed his hand toward the door and focused. "Bombarda!"

The door flew off its hinges, smacking the two 'guards' that had been assigned to it in the process. He was certain they'd be fine though. Just a few mild bruises, maybe a concussion.

They spilled into the hall and started checking doors. Most opened easily and were completely empty on the inside.

"This one's locked!" Suki called out with excitement.

Harry came over and muttered a quick alohomora. The lock clicked and the door swung open. The room inside was dimly lit, but they could just make out two hunched figures near the back wall.

"Mom? Dad?" Suki entered hesitantly.

There was no response for a long moment and Harry was certain they hadn't found their intended targets, but then one of the figures stirred as if rousing from sleep. "Suki?" asked a woman sleepily, and then upon seeing the girl panic laced the woman's voice. "Suki, what are you doing here?! I told you to run!"

"That's a complicated story, best told somewhere that's not here." Harry interjected before Suki could even attempt to explain. "Let's go. This is a prison break." He said it melodramatically, but no one laughed.

Getting out of the village was almost laughably easy. Once Harry started throwing magic at them it was clear just how unused to fighting the groups of militia were. They scattered like roaches if he threw anything bright at them so he just kept shooting lumos balls at them. He didn't want to hurt the people after all. They were trying to do what they thought would help their home even if it was some sort of misguided lynching of a child. 

Once they made it into forest cover they moved slower but Harry was careful to hide their trail as best he could. It helped that Kosmos seemed to finally be able to manipulate the plant growth again. Not at her normal strength, but enough to move some vines and aid in covering their tracks. After they were a fair distance from the village they stopped to allow Suki and her parents a moment of respite… and reunion.

There was an awful lot of hugging going on with the family. Quite a few mutterings of the word 'idiot', and even more tears. Finally Suki's father broke off from the other two and turned to Harry and Kosmos who were trying to give them a bit of privacy while they drank some water not far away. He watched them for a moment, sizing them up. Harry caught the man's gaze and gave him a smile. Without warning the man went down on his knees and bowed. Harry blinked, not comprehending the sudden change.

"You risked your lives to help my daughter and save us. I don't know how we can ever repay you." the man said, face still lowered nearly to the dirt.

Harry felt like his face was on fire. He didn't very much like the idea of someone bowing to him. Respect and gratitude or not, the act was highly embarrassing as far as he saw. Both for him and the man that was basically prostrating himself on a forest floor.

"Eeeehh!" Harry rubbed the back of his head. "It was nothing. Really."

"Don't sell yourself short." Harry turned his eyes to Suki's mother. She was a plain woman, but not ugly. A gentle smile filled her face. "It took a lot of bravery to face that many men. And to do it for someone you'd only just met. You must be an incredibly kind person."

This family certainly had a way of saying and doing embarrassing things. If possible he was sure his face was five times as bright now and so hot it might combust any moment.

"You shouldn't give him too much credit." Kosmos spoke up. "His ego doesn't really need the stroking."

And there was his trusty side kick to put a pin hole in the balloon and bring him back down to Earth. Harry coughed a bit into his hand, clearing his throat.

"He's not the only one we're thanking." the woman pointed out making the plant mage go a bit pink as well.

"Anyway…" he said turning from Kosmos and back to the family. "The three of you should stay here. Kosmos and I are going to head up Mt. Shiro and see if we can't sort out whatever is happening here for you."

"We appreciate it, but haven't you done enough?" Suki's father spoke up. "You don't owe anyone here anything. Why do you keep helping?"

Harry shrugged. "You could call it curiosity."

"Or a 'saving people' thing." Kosmos interjected and watched as her companion's back tensed for just the smallest of moments, but it had been there. She'd touched a nerve somehow.

"Whatever is going on here, it may not just be related to your village. It might be magic in nature, it might spread. You saw how people reacted where you live. I don't really want to walk away knowing I abandoned other villages to starvation as well."

"Then, for all that you're doing… thank you. I'm sure that if they knew what you were doing for them our neighbors would say the same." The man said, bowing slightly.

Harry smiled at that. At least the guy wasn't on the ground again. "Right, we'll come again once we've figured out what's going on. Wait here for us."

"Is it really okay to just leave them there?" Kosmos asked as they made a beeline for the path they knew would take them up the mountain.

Harry shrugged. "Better than leaving them with scared, angry villagers. People do stupid things when they're scared."

She frowned, but she couldn't disagree.

The mountain road was steep. Paper lanterns marked the path every few feet, and they seemed to flicker with life even in the early evening heat.

"No one's been up here to light them right? Are they using magic?" Harry asked, curiously.

"Most likely."

It wasn't the first bit of casual magic they run into. Even in the boonies people still used magic for ease of life. It took Harry by surprise even after months of wandering this strange but familiar world. Kosmos had found his cluelessness odd at first, but she seemed to take it in stride now. She'd answer his question and keep going instead of countering with questions about why he didn't know things. He'd tried to explain on multiple occasions why he didn't know things, but it was sort of difficult to explain that you'd lived as an incorporeal being inside a lacrima for eons until just recently. 

"At least it's still working." Kosmos paused to look at the lantern nearest to her, drawing Harry from his thoughts. "That has to be a good sign."

"Maybe." Harry agreed noncommittally.

The continued their trek for a while longer. Thankfully it came to an end long before they approached the precipice.

"Seems like a sketchy place to put a shrine." Harry noted. Decaying trees lined a stone road that led to a decently sized shrine. It reminded Harry of the shrines he'd seen in books about Japan in his youth. It was a small building with a steeple roof. Underneath that was what looked like a well. Banners streamed from the ceiling to the immaculately clean floor.

"What is that?"

Kosmos' question drew his attention. He had no real answer either once he saw the object of her curiosity. To the left of the small shrine something seemed to rotate in midair. It almost looked like a golden ring. In its center was the darkest black Harry could recall ever seeing. As soon as he spotted the thing it began to shrink. Then it flickered, and was gone. Only to reopen just feet away from them. Harry nearly jumped as the edge of the ring rushed by him. He'd never seen anything like this.

"I'd bet my money that this is the thing causing all the issues."

He reached out to touch it only to have a solid grip latch onto his wrist. He turned curiously to Kosmos and she was giving him a heated glare.

"You have no idea what that is. It could hurt you. It could explode."

"It could do a million things. But we won't know how to deal with it until we know what it is. And we won't know what it is unless I do this." Without another thought he shoved his free hand through the center of dark circle.

"Idiot." Kosmos hissed as she released his arm, taking a step back. She surveyed the thing as Harry pushed his arm in a bit further. The ring hit his shoulder and stopped. "It looks like a celestial summoning gate."

"Ewwwwwwww…." Harry made a face of disgust as he withdrew his hand. It was covered in thick sludge. He held the hand as far from him as possible and walked to the well to get a bucket of water to wash the disgusting stuff off. He dropped the pail down into the well and then drew it back up with a pulley. As soon as it cleared the edge of the well he retrieved it and plunged his arm into the water.

"That could have gone much worse." Kosmos heaved a sigh.

"Take a look at this." Harry ignored the reprimand.

Kosmos moved to his side and looked down. At first she couldn't see what was so amazing but then she noticed the water level in the bucket dropping. "Is there a hole?"

Harry withdrew his arm and shook his head. He looked at the bucket with curiosity etched on his features. "No, it's absorbing the water."

He looked up, catching her eye. "I think we have indeed found our culprit."


	11. Too Much Pink

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Harry confronts some celestial spirits about a drought.

"Okay, so we've identified the problem." Harry said kicking over the bucket. "Now we just have to solve it."

"You think it'll be that easy?"

"Of cou…" he blinked, turning. That hadn't been Kosmos' voice. Standing awfully close to the portal he'd just stuck his hand through was a young girl with extremely tan skin and bright pink hair. Weirder still, she seemed to have rams horns sprouting from the sides of her head.

"Who are you?" Kosmos asked moving into a defensive stance.

"Ah, ah. You showed up at my portal. And you're not from the village. That means you have to tell me who are."

"Ah…" Harry pointed and turned to Kosmos. "Goat girl. That's what we'll call her."

Kosmos rolled her eyes. He wasn't taking the girl seriously. Kosmos had already learned her lesson about not taking threats seriously. No matter how ridiculous those horns looked she wasn't going to let her guard down.

"EEEEEEEHHH!" the girl looked absolutely livid with the nick name. "You dare mock one of the zodiac?! I'll make you pay!"

"Well you didn't want to give us your name." Harry reasoned calmly.

"Golden horn bomber!"

Replicas of the horns mounted to the side of her head flew forward striking at the both of them. Kosmos dove to the left and Harry to the right.

"You won't get away that easily! Kneel before the most badass of the zodiac, Aries!" More of the make shift bombs flew forward separating and chasing the two of them individually.

"Zodiac…" Harry murmured as he dodged one of the horns, it flew into a tree taking a sizable chunk out of it. "Where have I heard that before?"

"They're the spirits the princess used to open the chaos gates." Kosmos supplied for her confused partner.

"Take this!" Chains flew forward and latched onto Kosmos' arm and neck. Without missing a beat the goat girl threw her hand in the air and the chains followed suit. Kosmos flew high grabbing at the shackle around her neck. The girl lowered her arm and Kosmos flew rapidly at the ground.

"Arresto momentum!" Harry yelled and Kosmos slowed drastically until she seemed to be floating to the ground instead.

Aries huffed in annoyance. "Gravity manipulation? That's just cheating."

"Diffindo." Harry flicked his hand and the chains connecting the two pink haired girls were severed.

"Ah!" Aries raised her hand to look at the chains with amazement. "Those were celestial steel."

"I don't know who you are, but I think trying to strangle my friend is going a step too far. Don't you?" Harry said his tone going a tinge cold near the end.

"You humans should have left well enough alone and I wouldn't have even had to interfere." Aries defended. She stuck out her tongue.

"Steleus."

Aries immediately started sneezing. She couldn't seem to control the reaction, and after about seven she looked thoroughly dizzy.

"You have a spell that makes people sneeze?" Kosmos asked massaging her neck underneath the metal. She'd seen him do a lot of different kinds of magic up to that point, but this spell just seemed ridiculously specific.

"I have a lot of spells." Harry said with a laugh. "Finite incantatum."

Aries fell back and took deep breaths a mild glare on her face.

"I don't know who you are, but really you shouldn't be attacking people like that. You could have seriously injured Kosmos." Harry chided.

"That was sort of the point ya know." Aries panted.

"You're a celestial spirit?" Kosmos asked.

Something flared in the girl's eyes then. "Aye."

"So who's your mage? Is it one of the villagers?"

Aries was on her feet in a flash. "I don't need a mage!" the girl was bristling with rage now. "You humans….!"

"That's enough!" Harry waved his arm through the air a quick silencio going with it. "I'm not entirely sure what's going on now, but it doesn't change the fact that you seem to be involved with whatever is happening to that village. You'll tell us how to undo the damage so we can help these people."

"As if!"

Harry blinked. He hadn't lifted the silencing spell yet. Kosmos pulled Harry sharply to the left as a crack split the air. Harry only belatedly recognized the sound as having come from a whip after he was sprawled on his ass.

"Focus!" Kosmos hissed. "There's another one."

And another one there was. The whip split the air again and Harry threw up a shield. The whip went right through and this time it was Harry's turn to pull Kosmos back. They both stared at the shield in shock.

"Why are you playing with these humans Aries?"

A third pink haired girl joined the quartet. She was grinning viciously and her eyes spelled suffering. Harry filed the weird fact that there were now only pink haired women around him as a fact he should address later. Maybe Kosmos could explain why there were so many people with pink hair nowadays. A more pressing thought had popped into his head.

Celestial spirits. Lucy. He'd recalled one of her dreams, her memories. She'd had a spirit named Aries, but the spirit had looked nothing like this wannabe thug. His head tilted to the side.

"You're celestial spirits?" He asked with confusion. Even with fragments of Lucy's memories floating around his brain he didn't quite understand what the nature of a spirit was. They clearly weren't human though if their hate towards mages was anything to go by. 

"That we are." The newcomer pulled her whip tight between her two hands and gave a sadistic grin. "And we're more than willing to dole out your share of punishment."

Kosmos scoffed. "Punishment for what?" she asked, glaring daggers.

The new girl smiled an alarmingly wide smile, her eyes looked a bit crazed. "There doesn't have to be a reason, but if you need one how about interfering with our plans?"

"Ah!" Harry clapped his hands. He belatedly remembered Kosmos explaining to him that the orange haired guy he'd met at the castle had been a celestial spirit and that when Lucy had 'closed his gate' she'd dismissed him from their realm of being. "You're with the orange haired bloke. What was his name? Lolo? Lala? Louie?"

Kosmos gave him a long, hard look. "Leo…?"

"Yeah! That was it!" Harry nodded.

Their two opponents had gone from openly hostile to cold and calculating.

"He was able to step through my shields too. Thought it was weird at the time. I suppose all of you can do that. You've got to tell me how you're doing it though." Harry looked at the two curiously.

Aries didn't particularly seem like she was capable of giving an answer even if she thought on it. The other was clearly a bit put off by the fact that Harry knew one of their friends.

"So… erm… truce?" Harry asked hopefully. "I mean, we're on the same side right? Maybe you can explain what's going on here?"

"On the same side?!" The newcomer exploded with rage. "As humans? Don't make me laugh!"

Her whip flew forward, arcing toward Harry's face. He caught it with his hand. "Now we were having a civil conversation. Was that necessary?" His arm was tensed as he restricted the weapons movement. His carefree smile was slowly fading into an irritated frown.

The newcomers smile turned vicious again and suddenly magic was flooding through the whip. Harry let it go with haste. His palm was slightly singed, but had he held on much longer he had no doubt the device would've tried to burn his arm clean off.

"Is a fight really essential?" Harry sulked avoiding three more lashes from the whip. He saw Kosmos dodging flying bombs from the goat girl Aries.

"We'll fight all humans until we can be free." The pink haired girl currently battling him yelled. "It's our turn to dole out the punishment."

"Is everyone a walking catch phrase machine?" Harry muttered, avoiding a crazy fast series of lashes from the crazed spirit. "Hold on just a hot minute."

He ducked under a strike and came up face to face with the girl. She was startled enough to halt her flailing attacks.

"You want to be free?"

Her eyes darkened. "Is that wrong?"

"You're not free now?" he asked, confused. He looked her up and down.

"Is now really the time to be reasoning with the enemy!?" Kosmos screamed from atop a tree she'd grown to avoid Aries.

"We'll never be free so long as humans hold our contracts."

Somehow that sentence was uttered with the most sincerity he'd heard come from the spirit up to that point. She looked almost sane compared to moments earlier when her eyes had been consumed by rage and glee.

Harry held up his hands, startling the spirit again. "Alright."

She blinked. "Alright?"

"I'm sold. You want freedom, fine. Take it."

The notion that they weren't fighting over her right to freedom didn't seem to be clicking.

"Of course I'm not sure I ever had any hold over either of you, so it's a bit confusing as to why we were fighting in the first place."

Aries and Kosmos' fight had tapered out when they realized their companions were no longer locked in a one on one.

"Of course, what I do take conflict with is whatever is happening in that town. I don't really have any attachment to the people down there, but they'll lose everything if they don't get water soon."

"Good riddance." She brought the whip around and it was clear that the small reprieve he'd earned was ending now.

Harry sighed, but focused on the weapon. And then they were off. The girl moved wildly, slashing at him with the whip in erratic motions. He dodged just as often as he was hit. It was harder to read her intentions now. It was like she was lost to whatever madness she had been keeping at bay til that moment.

He flung himself away from another wild stroke and latched onto the nearest thing to pull himself further away from the crazed pink haired girl. He felt a surge of energy that jolted him and he realized he'd somehow managed to get his hand around the 'gate' the two girls had been talking about earlier, the very one he'd stuck his hand through earlier. Grasping the ring he noticed something odd though. He released the ring, and gave his attacker an incredulous look.

"You didn't open that." He said, moving behind the ring. As he thought, she didn't lash out with the gate between them. "The magical signature is all wrong."

"It matters little who opened it. It's prividing us with the power to perform our spell so we'll be guarding it."

"I don't know." Harry placed his hand on the ring again. He'd had an idea. They kept referring to this thing as a gate, and the memories from Lucy referred to summoning her spirits as opening gates. He closed his eyes and focused on the magic in the ring. He remembered the pull on his magic from the Chaos gates and reenacted the feeling here, except this time he pulled on the magic holding the gate open. As he suspected it shrunk sizably in seconds. "Seems hard to guard something that's not there."

He'd definitely pissed her off. Her eyes flamed and her whip crackled with energy.

"Whoops." Harry dove as the whip cut through the air only to meet with the stem of a very large flytrap. Kosmos to the rescue it seemed. "I thought you were fighting the other one." Harry pushed himself up as Kosmos dropped from her vantage point in a tree.

"She's out for the moment."

"Good work Kosmos! I knew I kept you around for a reason." Harry laughed, Kosmos gave him an irritated side glance. "Right… distract her for a few minutes?"

Kosmos rolled her eyes, but she focused on their remaining adversary.

Harry waited for his companion to draw the other girl's attention away, no easy feat, before moving back to the gate. He put his hand on it again and this time drew as much power from it as he could in one fell swoop. The gate seemed to flicker for a moment before a torrent of water shot from it, right into Harry's chest. Harry barely remained where he was and only managed that because of his firm hold on the ring. He drew what little magic remained in the gate and the water suddenly stopped pouring out because the gate was gone. Harry stood there looking like he'd just climbed out of a pool. He blinked owlishly at the two pink haired girls who'd been fighting, but had stopped when water had shot from the gate feet away from them.

The stranger got ahold of herself first. "How dare you!" she lashed out with her whip. Harry grabbed it again and before she could flood it with magic as she'd done before he tugged on it sharply. She stumbled forward. Time to test a theory.

He placed his hand on her forehead, and felt the magic inside her. It was indeed very similar to the gate he'd just closed. He pulled sharply on it and felt her disappear from his grasp.

"What the…" Kosmos still had her hands raised, mid attack.

"What did you… how…?" Harry turned to see Aries holding herself up with a tree and staring at Harry with nothing short of horror.

"Hmm?" Harry clapped his hands together. "I'm not sure it'd be easy to explain it. I'm sure she's fine…"

Some of the abject horror rescinded. Instead she was staring at his hands with a new found wariness. "Just who are you? We thought you were just some run of the mill wizard." She glared. "Did someone send you to stop us?"

Harry held up his hands. "Ah haha… I have no idea what you're even doing." He admitted giving her a disarming smile.

"Where is Virgo?"

"Virgo?" Harry repeated the name and the image of the same pink haired girl from earlier dressed in drastically different clothing came to mind. Another of Lucy's memories. He blinked, snapping himself from the momentary stupor. "I suppose she's back wherever it is that you go when you're not… well… here…"

"Don't expect it to go this well next time. We'll be ready." The girl glowed gold for a moment before simply vanishing.

"Well that was certainly odd." Harry frowned.

"That's an understatement." Kosmos agreed, plucking at his drenched shirt and raising an eyebrow.

Harry laughed nervously. "Still, I'd rather not be here if the Virgo girl figures out how to reopen her gate. Maybe we should…" he nodded back toward the road.

Kosmos let her eyes drift from the road down the mountain to the space where the glowing gate had been and back again. She sighed, but nodded. "Whatever was corrupting the energy around here seems to have abated."

Harry nodded as he cast a quick drying spell on himself. "It was probably being caused by the strange gate."

"Why would they want all the water from the fields though?" Kosmos pondered aloud. "Spirits are supposed to be in tune with nature. Taking the water would… has upset the balance here."

Harry hummed as he mulled over that very dilemma in his head. Why would the zodiac spirits be acting so odd? And why did they seem almost like exact opposites of the memories he had? He was convinced it wasn't some sort of coincidence that they had the same names. Surely these were the same spirits Lucy held contracts with, and yet they seemed to loathe even the mention of mages.

"Curious indeed." He muttered.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hungryyyyy." Harry moaned when they finally made it to the end of the mountain road. It was nice and dark and only the distant paper lanterns seemed to be giving off any light at all. "Why'd we have to leave the bags behind? I'm so hungry I could eat a tree."

Kosmos almost looked offended at the suggestion. "We were focusing on rescuing Suki's parents remember? We couldn't exactly go looking for the luggage as well."

"Yeah, but the food was in there Kosmos." Harry whined.

Kosmos heaved a sigh. She dug into her pocket and produced a single, wrapped energy bar.

"Ah! Is that food?" Harry perked up watching the slight glint of the silvery packaging.

"I'll give you half." She offered.

"Sold!" Harry was almost bouncing now, displaying more energy than he'd shown in the last hour of walking.

"In return…"

Harry stopped bouncing.

"You have to stop talking about food for at least two days."

"That's hardly fair!" Harry bemoaned.

"I suppose I'll eat it myself then."

"Be kind," Harry sobbed.

"Mr. Harry?"

Harry stopped giving his companion puppy eyes and turned to the young girl standing just within the copse of trees to their right. He smiled, though he wasn't sure she could tell that much in the darkness of the forest.

"Suki." Harry greeted with a nod.

"We were getting a bit worried." Suki's mother's voice echoed through the small clearing. "You were gone for quite some time."

"We ran into a bit of trouble near the shrine, but it's taken care of for now." Harry approached the two. "I don't believe I ever caught your name."

"Risa." Suki's mother offered a gentle smile. "And my husband is Tsunen."

"Well, nice to meet you Miss Risa."

"We weren't able to find much, but we saved a bit of food for the two of you."

Harry perked up. "Food?" he asked hopefully.

'Food' turned out to be a bad description in Harry's honest opinion. Apparently Tsunen had been lucky enough to find a rabbit, but other than that there hadn't been much for Risa to cook with. They'd found just enough water to make soup. It was more thin broth than real soup though. Harry wasn't going to complain though. He was sure that family had subsisted on worse recently, what with the village's livelihood being affected so drastically.

"So what did you find at the shrine?" Suki asked impatiently as Harry tried to pretend he was enjoying his makeshift bowl of rabbit water. He was mostly impressed they'd found something large enough to boil a rabbit in... and bowls. Were these hand carved?

"Magic portals, pink haired spirits, gross sludge that absorbs water. You know, the usual."

The family gave him looks of varying degrees of disbelief. He shrugged.

"I suppose nothing can be done for the village then." Tsunen said frowning.

"No one said that." Harry disagreed, setting down the small bowl he'd been holding. He stood, stretching. "You should all get some sleep. I'll take watch."

"Nonsense."

Harry blinked as Tsunen stood as well. The man was giving him a hard stare. "You're clearly planning something."

Harry opened his mouth the defend himself.

"I'm an old man now." Harry raised an eyebrow. The guy couldn't be past his mid forties. "I'm not good in a fight, and I don't know magic. I'll be useless if you're planning something, but watching out for everyone while they sleep, that's something even an old man like me can do."

Harry smiled as the man snuffed out the tiny fire they'd been using.

"Get some sleep kid."

Harry scoffed. 'Kid'? Him? Still, sleep was enticing considering how little he'd had the night before and everything that had happened that day. "Alright, I'm a fairly light sleeper. If anything happens just whistle."

Morning, thankfully, came without incident. Harry woke mostly rested and fully hungry. The grumbling of his stomach only strengthened his resolve to end the village's drought quickly. He wanted his damned bag back.

Kosmos was reclining nearby against the withered husk of a fallen tree. Probably one of many that had died since the artificial drought began. She cocked an eyebrow questioningly at him as he rubbed a few leaves from his messy hair.

"Good, you're awake." Tsunen hovered near his wife who was watching their daughter sleep and silently weeping.

"Did something happen?" Harry asked, instantly a bit more awake as he glanced around, before settling his gaze back on the weeping mother.

"No, no…" Tsunen sighed trudging away from Risa. "She's just worried."

"Ah…" Harry frowned.

"So, this plan of yours… am I gonna like it?"

Harry blinked then smiled sheepishly. "Probably not." He admitted.

Tsunen nodded, seemingly taking the words at face value.

"What is your plan, exactly?" Kosmos asked crossing her arms. "I feel like your answer's going to be something completely ugly, like walking back into the village."

Silence echoed through the clearing for a moment.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Kosmos yelled, giving him an incredulous look.

"Well…." Harry didn't really have the gall to talk up his plan. He knew it wasn't the best plan ever. He may have always had a quick wit and a sense of sarcasm to match even the most talented insult slinger, but he'd never been too great with plans. He was always the 'do what has to be done and deal with consequences later' guy. It had worked out when he was a kid… mostly. He cringed inwardly as the long buried face of his godfather floated to the back of his mind.

He pushed himself from the ground, brushing off his pants.

"Best get it over with, eh?"

They made their way as a group back to the village. Kosmos grumbled the whole way, Suki kept smiling and generally taking the whole thing a bit too well, and her parents… well… they were shooting Harry worried glances like they thought he'd lost his mind. To their credit, or perhaps Harry's, they didn't try very hard to stop what they saw as bad planning embodied. So either they realized they had little other choice but to follow his lead, or Harry had convinced them that he had it under control. As much as he wanted to convince himself it was the latter it probably wasn't.

"Alright, wise one." Kosmos mocked as the village peaked through the thinning trees. "What next?"

"Easy." He kept walking out of the trees and straight into the village. The few people out and about came to an immediate stand still as he emerged. They all seemed at a loss for a few moments before the village erupted into a frenzy of movement.

Harry, followed skittishly by his little group, made their way about halfway to the rice fields before there was any real opposition. Familiar faces from the first time they'd been apprehended stood before them now. Harry flung a few body binds toward the unsuspecting villagers and watched with amusement as they fell on their sides. He almost sighed with relief when he realized the weird drain on his core wasn't happening at nearly the same rate it had been when they'd first set foot in the village. Closing the odd portal seemed to have paid off. If only it had brought the water back by itself. After the first few villagers fell and didn't get back up the rest seemed to hang back out of fear. That worked for him. It kept them far enough away not to interfere but close enough to witness Suki's family being part of the solution.

On the far side of the village's rice paddy Harry could make out the small glint of a lazily winding river that hadn't been there before. So the natural source of their irrigation was back, they'd just need a bit of a boost and then some hard work to get the paddy growing again. Harry stopped just at the edge of a small dip into the ground. It was the marked edge of the field. There should have been water there. He glanced at Kosmos who was eying him curiously. "Might need a bit of help with this." He said with a smile, then turned to the field. "Aguamenti maxima!"

He wasn't sure if it was because he was bouncing with anticipation from the villagers that ringed around them, or if he just hit some sort of water jackpot, but the spell produced more water than even a maxima normally did for him. He was almost rocketed off his feet by the torrents of water that flooded from his directed hand.

He'd barely sustained the spell for a measly two minutes or so before he felt like barfing, curling into a ball and sleeping for the next two weeks. He released his hold on the spell and felt himself wobble a bit before going down on one knee as his head swam, but fought for consciousness and won. Kosmos knelt beside him looking torn between awestruck, irritated, and concerned.

"Your turn." He said, through labored breaths.

She blinked, not comprehending before her eyes followed his and the idea seemed to click in her head. She gave him one last lingering look before letting go and focusing. Harry could feel the Earth almost vibrate under them as she called on its powers and then small shoots of leaves began to peak through the water that was still standing on the ground. The two of them had just brought part of the rice paddy back to life.

It was far from the whole thing, and it would take work from the villagers to keep it from dying again, but it was alive. Awestruck silence followed the act for a few moments before elated cheers broke the still morning air.

Harry didn't object, or even say anything as the overjoyed villagers surrounded the little group. He let the little outcast family enjoy a moment of acceptance after being shunned for something they'd had no control over. Risa was crying tears of joy. Suki was laughing and jumping up and down. It was the happiest she'd been since they'd met.

Harry heaved a huge sigh as they were jostled away from the paddy and toward the village proper. He glanced back at the field, a sense of relief flooding through him. He'd been able to fix something. He hadn't messed things up worse by getting involved. The thought was soothing.


	12. A Chance Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Harry stumbles into a familiar face in the midst of some regularly scheduled chaos.

Harry stared quite forlornly at the approaching sunset. It had been weeks since they'd left Suki's village and the world seemed to be tearing itself apart. Some tiny piece of his mind was curious as to whether or not somehow his magic had caused this, but every time the thought surfaced he would push it down again. Magic was unknowable, ever changing. He doubted any one small anomaly could alter it this drastically. No, something else must be going on. Something big, and it was a little conceited of him to think he had anything to do with it. Even if a little piece in the back of his mind screamed that usually it did have something to do with him.

It was almost novel to him that he didn't know what was going on. His entire life seemed to be centered around cosmic mishaps after all. How strange was it that he didn't seem to have the same problem currently. Although he supposed he had been at the epicenter of the attack on Crocus he supposed.

Kosmos was reading the latest newspaper, a frown tugging at her lips. He could tell the young girl was just as worried about the current state of affairs as he was. She glanced up and met his eyes for half a second before returning to her reading material.

Harry took a sip of the coffee he'd ordered and heaved a sigh. He was quite tired from traveling. He'd promised to take the girl all across the world and they'd been traveling for weeks, nonstop. And even before that he'd been traveling by himself for months. He needed a vacation from their… vacation. He snuck a look at the reading pink haired girl. Maybe he could convince her to settle somewhere for a little while so he could recuperate. He was running low on funds again too if he were being honest. He'd given away a lot of his supplies to Suki's village too. It was all spelling out one thing.

He needed a job.

That wasn't the most appealing prospect to him. It meant he might have to do hard, repetitive labor for money. On the plus side maybe he could put his magic to work for him. He could take some cleaning jobs and use his magic to clean the place while he got some much needed shut eye… or would that be considered lazy? He leaned back to consider the conundrum only to freeze as his eyes traveled over the skyline.

"That doesn't bode well." He frowned, leaning forward again.

Kosmos peeked up at him and then followed his gaze to the horizon.

Just minutes before the sky had been perfectly calm and turning red and pink with the first signs of sunset. Now the same calm sky was turning grey rapidly. The waves they could see from their vantage point above the sea were choppy and getting uncomfortably high.

"It must be one of the storms everyone's been talking about." Kosmos pinned her paper to the table as the wind picked up quite suddenly around them.

The storms had been striking across the globe without warning. It was only now that they were experiencing it firsthand that Harry could really appreciate just what they'd meant by 'without warning'. He'd never seen a storm set in that fast.

People were running up and down the piers securing some things and grabbing others. The smart people were heading for higher ground as the freak storm whipped the bay into a frenzy of rushing wind and water.

"Okay…" Harry muttered. "Think Potter. Any spells to stop a hurricane?"

"That'd be helpful." Kosmos agreed.

He winced, not actually having meant for her to hear him. "Sorry," he held up his hands. "I've got nothing."

"Not beautiful."

She seemed to say that a lot when their situation was unfavorable. He'd noted it was sort of a speech quirk for her.

"I guess we'll have to do what we can to minimize damage one spell at a time." He offered with an apologetic smile.

She gave him a very long measuring look before heaving a sigh that was lost to the wind. She shook her head but trudged off toward the stairs leading to the piers. He could see her intent from here. There were still tons of people flooding the wooden planks. They were the most at risk of getting dragged into the inclement weather.

He focused in on a couple of stray tornadoes the storm had somehow brewed up. With a sigh he took off toward where he could see the nearest about to make landfall. He passed an intersection and smacked straight into a woman who'd been about to turn in the direction he was going. They ended up rolling a couple of times before they both came up rubbing different spots on their heads. Harry, his nose, and the woman, her temple.

"Ah, sorry." The woman said jumping up and bowing, she looked ready to bolt away in the direction of the storm.

His eyes narrowed. She seemed familiar. No, not just familiar. He'd definitely met her somewhere before. She was pretty with long white hair and pale skin. But he couldn't place where he'd seen her until she swung away. She'd been with the group he'd met in the labyrinth underneath Crocus. She was a Fairy Tail mage. He thought hard for a moment but he honestly couldn't recall if he'd gotten her name. So much had happened in that short stretch of time.

He pulled himself to his feet. She was heading the same way he was so she was probably going to try and do something about the tornado. Maybe they could work together. He certainly didn't have any ideas.

"Wait up!" he yelled after her.

He nearly ran into her again as she came to a dead stop in the middle of the street quite suddenly. She was staring ahead calculatingly at the spot where the tornado had just made land fall. Wind was whipping around them so fast Harry was finding it hard to keep his footing.

"Any ideas?!" Harry yelled above the wind. He must have startled her because she whipped around so fast he was surprised she didn't fall over. She seemed to take his appearance relatively well all things considered. There was just a momentary narrowing of her eyes that told him she was probably suspicious of his following her. But it was gone in a split second as she obviously decided she had more important things to worry about at the moment. A child a bit further down the street was clinging to a lamp post for dear life as the tornado began to demolish a building not far from them.

Harry saw her eyes widen as they focused on the kid stuck in the middle of the freak storm. Now that he was paying attention the kid wasn't the only one caught unawares. There was a whole family huddling in an awning, and a dog scratching vigorously at a door.

Harry turned back to the girl at his side and nearly jumped out of his skin. She looked entirely different now. Wings and a tail adorned her lithe body and her clothing was entirely too revealing. Harry nearly clapped a hand over his eyes.

"I've got the bystanders." The girl offered zooming off after a long glance at him.

"Which…" Harry stared at the raging tornado. "Just leaves me with the gigantic, destructive act of nature… right."

He heaved a sigh as the girl pulled everyone she came across further from the tornado with amazing speed.

"Right… think…. Think…" Harry tapped his head. There had to be something in his repertoire he could use. He could throw up a shield around it. But he doubted he could make one large enough to cover the whole thing and putting one on just one side wouldn't help much. A particularly large gust of wind buffeted him to the side and he lost his footing having to stumble a few steps to regain it.

"Better to try than do nothing right?" Harry muttered to himself as the funnel of wind made its way toward a house. He threw up a barrier, as thick as he could manage about five feet from the front door. The wind flew wildly around it. It almost worked but he hadn't made it quite tall enough. Pieces of the roof began to rip apart under the deluge even as the bottom most section began to weaken. Harry took a deep breath as the shield fell. 

"Can you do that again?" Harry jumped as the voice sounded almost behind him.

The girl was back and looking at him with curiosity. He nodded preparing to try to box the tornado in, minimize damage. Maybe if he could get the whole thing in it would die out without air currents to feed it.

"Try to make it higher, aim for about there."

He followed her finger and shrugged, willingly following the instruction and aiming for the right most side of the wind funnel making it as tall as he could. He released the magic and suddenly it was like there was a sonic boom as the air hit the shield. Unable to continue on its path the air went outward and, unfortunately, right at them. Windows shattered under the force and they tumbled head over heel until they met with an unfortunately solid wall. Head aching from the sudden impact, and more than a little dizzy from the sudden trip Harry cracked an eye and looked around. Torn pieces of buildings lay all around them but the tornado seemed to have petered out after it hit the shield. The dark grey of the sky was slowly lightening now, a sure sign that the sudden storm was already retreating to strike somewhere else.

"You did it."

Harry turned to the girl who was sprawled against the wall massaging her head but staring at where they'd just been blown from.

"We." He countered. "I wouldn't have thought to put a barrier in the middle like that."

"Teamwork." She conceded with a smile and a nod.

Harry stood, brushing off his pants. "That does seem to be how your guild likes to work." Harry agreed, offering her a hand. "Fairy Tail right?"

"I… yes." She took the hand, hesitating for only a moment as she was clearly trying to figure out why he looked familiar to her. It had been a hectic time when they'd last met and she hadn't stuck around long.

"We met briefly in Crocus." Harry offered with another disarming smile. "I don't think I caught your name though."

"Mirajane." She offered easily.

"Nice to officially meet you Miss Mirajane. The name's Harry."

"Harry?" her eyebrows pulled together for a moment as her mind flipped to what she could recall about the man that held that name. Everyone had said Master Makarov had been tense around the man. That he was incredibly strong. But most importantly, "You're the one who saved Wendy."

"Ah…" Harry cleared his throat. "Um… yeah. No big deal… just… you know."

A rumble filled the air between them.

"Ahahaha…" Harry edged away. "I guess it's time for me to just… uh…"

"Are you hungry?"

"No! No, of course not." Harry waved his hands. "I just um… that was the rubble… settling…"

"That's the least convincing lie you've ever told."

Harry nearly jumped out of his skin.

"You've made a new friend." Kosmos who had appeared at his shoulder without his knowledge at some point during his conversation was regarding Mirajane critically.

Mirajane just smiled. "There's a café not far from here." She offered. "If it wasn't damaged they might be able to sell us some lunch."

Harry made a move to protest.

"Your treat." Kosmos said moving past the other girl to continue up the street.

"Ah…" Harry stared after his companion in shock. He'd never seen her be so openly rude to someone. He turned to Mirajane with apologetic eyes.

She waved it off. "Don't worry about it. I was going to offer anyway."

He gave her an unsure look but didn't argue. He didn't have much room to. He hated mooching off of people but their reserves really were drying up fast, and they hadn't really eaten that day. 

"There's a standing job in this town for anyone who can help defend against those storms. They got hit a couple of weeks ago and lost quite a bit of the North side of the city because no one was around to help." Mirajane spoke as they walked, her eyes were trained ahead but she was clearly talking to him. "They'll have a reward when we leave even if it's only small."

Harry heaved a sigh of relief. It felt less like mooching now. He had helped stop the disaster. It could have been much worse than a few partially damaged buildings.

"So you're pretty strong." Mirajane continued. "You must have found a guild by now, right?"

Harry blinked. He'd learned a small bit about the guilds. He knew that mages in this time period would offer their services to a guild and then there would be a sort of mutual benefit with the mages working for them. It hadn't sounded like a terrible system but for the most part Harry had been dissuaded from joining by the first few he'd run into in Earthland. They'd been pompous and flashed their guild marks like he should kiss the ground they walked on just because they belonged to a guild. "Me? Ah, no. No guild." He finally answered.

He caught the short side glance she shot him and the slight tug of her lips.

"Here we are." She placed a hand on the door. "The Chester Pub."

The place was worn but welcoming. Kosmos was already in a corner booth when they pushed open the door combing through a menu. They took seats across from her.

"Were you two just passing through Hargeon or did you come here looking for something?" Mirajane asked politely as the waiter handed them two more menus. The pub looked mostly untouched. Their lights were still on and if not for the glass being cleared away near the wall you might not even be able to tell it had been near the disaster at all.

"We were just passing through." Kosmos supplied.

"We hadn't decided on where to go next though." Harry finished. "What about you? What brought you this way? Your guild hall is in Magnolia, right?"

"It is." She frowned. "Most of our members are out trying to help with the weird weather. Some towns have been under constant storms since all this started a few weeks ago. Some of our mages are skilled with the elements, others just went to see if they could help evacuate people."

Harry nodded sympathetically. "It certainly is a strange turn of events." He conceded indicating what he wanted on the menu to the server. "I haven't been able to figure out the root of it."

Mirajane nodded seriously, though she seemed to know a bit more than she was saying.

"This, this, and this." Kosmos pointed at three separate meals.

Harry shifted uncomfortably beside Mirajane. "I know it's our first proper restaurant meal in a while but take it easy Kosmos."

Kosmos just sent him a disinterested look as she snapped the menu closed and held it to the server. Harry knew she wasn't ordering that much food as some sort of personal vendetta. She'd seen Harry eat before. And she'd seen him order just one entrée which wouldn't be enough for him. But he'd always felt uncomfortable having others pay for him. Mirajane had offered to buy them a meal, not six.

"It's fine." The white haired girl waved it away. She was studying the two with interest now though. "So you two have been traveling together since the Grand Magic Games?"

Harry cleared his throat. "Ah, yes. Fairy Tail won didn't they? I didn't get to see the final round."

"They did." Kosmos blurted. "Erza Scarlet's fights were quite beautiful."

"Weren't you under the city like me?" Harry asked with confusion. "How did you see the fights?"

Kosmos withdrew something from her bag and flicked it onto the table. It was a purple crystal that just stretched from one edge of his hand to the other. He picked it up and rotated it curiously.

"A recorder crystal." Mirajane supplied also looking at the device.

Kosmos indicated she wanted the crystal back and Harry happily turned it over to her. "I'll show you how to work it if you want."

Harry nodded, wondering if it was common knowledge or something that even normal people had to be shown. Kosmos had learned a lot of his quirks in their time together and he had learned a lot of hers. He was just thankful she didn't start demanding to know why he freaked out over small, ordinary things.

Harry was happy to see the food making its way toward them. Steaming plates of dumplings and an unidentified meat. Harry also spotted something that looked an awful lot like spaghetti. He didn't waste time. As soon as the server had set down the food he'd begun to dig in.

He paused after a moment when there was a small laugh to his left. He wiped his mouth and glanced over.

"Ah, sorry." Mirajane waved off the questioning look. "You just reminded me of someone for a second."

"Ah." Harry set back in on the food at a slower pace.

"You know if you need money joining a guild would probably work for you." Mirajane was leaning over her own plate of dumplings but watching him almost intensely.

"I don't really want to be tied down in one place for a long time." Harry negated despite thinking about settling earlier that very day.

"Members are free to come and go as they please." Mirajane countered. "A guild is like a home. You can go wherever you want, but it's always there waiting when you come back."

'Hogwarts will always be here waiting to welcome you back.'

Harry blinked a few times as the present and past blurred for a moment in his mind. Who had said that to him all those years ago? He couldn't recall. Had someone said that to him? Maybe he was misremembering.

"Guilds also provide a source of income for mages. We have jobs that get posted to our wall and you can complete them to earn money. Some of them are for distant islands and stuff so you could still travel. You could look for similar work on your own of course, but the best jobs are usually contracted through a guild."

Harry hummed in thought. It wasn't the worst idea certainly. And they did need the money. But the guilds he'd run into over the years weren't always full of the kindest people. He'd run into one guild a while back that had been run by thugs. They were essentially the guild equivalent of the yakuza.

"Think it over." Mirajane smiled. "If you do decide to join a guild you're always welcome at Fairy Tail."

Harry snorted and choked on the bite of dumpling he had in his mouth. He laughed it off as he turned to her. "Am I though?" he asked with a chuckle before turning back to his food.

He didn't catch the look of concern or mild confusion.

"We should be going." Kosmos stated just a few minutes later looking out of the cracked window at the sky. Sure enough it was nearing sunset.

"We've got to find somewhere to stay or it's another night in monster infested woods." Harry agreed, standing. The plates were cleared save for meat buns which Harry plucked off the table. "T'anks 'or the 'ood."

Mirajane waved as the two beat a hasty retreat. The white haired girl sat in the now empty booth and fiddled with her hair as she waited for the check. She mulled over what Harry'd said and the tone he'd used. She was worried about why he felt he wouldn't be welcomed in Fairy Tail. Maybe she'd make a call to Makarov since she couldn't leave quite yet.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They were lucky enough to stumble across a father and son with a broken wagon on the outskirts of town. Harry fixed up the wagon and he and Kosmos got to sleep in their barn for free. Harry was thankful people were more willing to help out strangers nowadays than they had been when he'd been a kid. He probably would've been pointed to the nearest hotel for his troubles back then.

"So," Kosmos sat down on some loose hay near him and stared at the little lantern they were using for light. It had the bluebell fire he remembered Hermione loving inside. "Guilds."

Harry nodded distractedly.

"Are we really that low on money?"

Harry laughed. "Yeah. We kind of are."

"Fairy Tail…" she started and then paused, obviously thinking about how to phrase her next statement. "It doesn't seem unbeautiful."

Harry nodded. The mages he'd met from the guild seemed straightforward and kind. But would they be welcomed there? The guild master hadn't cared for his presence after the attack on Crocus. Harry wasn't even sure what he'd done to anger the small man but he didn't want to constantly have to dance around stepping on people's toes. If a guild was supposed to be like a home it certainly wouldn't feel that way if he was hated. He almost laughed as memories of his aunt's house popped into his mind. Or maybe it would.

"We'll talk about it more tomorrow." Harry promised. "For now, let's get some sleep."


	13. Welcome to Fairy Tail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Harry and Kosmos become members of the guild.

"I'm fairly certain it was this way."

Harry paused and swiveled left, then right.

"Are you?" asked an irritated Kosmos.

"Give me a break. It's been a while." Harry moaned.

The girl slowly crossed her arms in front of her chest but didn't argue further.

"Hmmmm…." Harry really wanted to use a point me spell but they were rather hit and miss these days. He assumed it was his magic adapting to the foreign feel of the planet.

"It's that way." Kosmos nodded to the left. She started trudging along the dirt path.

"How can you be sure?" Harry asked curiously as he fell into step beside her.

"The plants." She said vaguely gesturing to the fields around them.

"The plants?"

"They say someone comes from this direction to sow them."

"Wow." Harry looked at the gently swaying wheat. Plants were smarter than he'd given them credit for if they were that aware of the world around them. It sort of made one think about how barbaric mowing the grass must seem to them.

"Hopefully it's not much farther." Kosmos mused.

"We are running low on rations." Harry agreed.

"And we didn't have money for train fare." Kosmos gave him an annoyed glance. "Perhaps we should have made the decision sooner."

Harry laughed, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head. "I wasn't really sure… how you'd take the idea."

She sighed. She hadn't joined Harry to become part of a guild. She'd wanted to travel the world and see new things. She supposed, in retrospect, it was a tad naïve and more than a bit selfish. She hadn't really thought out where the money would come from or where she'd sleep at night. And so far she had to admit Harry had been fairly accommodating. He'd allowed her to eat his food, share his hotel rooms, and journey beside him without really asking for anything more than help in the occasional spat, or maybe a hand saving a village or two. Maybe accommodating wasn't giving him enough credit even, but she wasn't used to thinking about things like where she'd sleep.

She'd been with the knight's order in Crocus since she had graduated from her academy. She'd been in dorms the whole time she'd been in school and a beginner knight right up until she joined her elite team of executioners. Food had always come from the palace and she'd never really bothered with saving her checks. She supposed she was a bit detached from what it was like to truly be a commoner. She was adapting to it though.

And on that note, a guild certainly didn't sound horrible. She could get paid to travel and she'd have a place to return to if she decided she needed a break. Although she knew she would always be welcome with her team back in Crocus too. The knights had formed close bonds over their years of service and she'd been assured that her departure wouldn't change that.

Kosmos had relented hesitantly at first to the thought of a guild but now she was certain they were moving towards a good choice. And what better guild to join than Fiore's supposed strongest? Well, she guessed she might have leant more toward Sabertooth if asked, but Harry obviously had his sights on Fairy Tail.

"Looks like we're getting close."

Kosmos glanced up at the sign Harry was inspecting. It was an old wooden thing with an arrow pointing the direction they were headed and the word 'Magnolia' scrolled across it. She hummed an agreement and they set off again, following the winding road.

Luckily they didn't have to walk much longer before they rounded a curve in the road and cleared one of the region's small mountains. The town sat before them in full view. Its winding rivers drew her attention first and then the multitude of quaint stone homes that made up the bulk of the town. Magnolia was exceptionally different from Crocus, but in such a way that made it seem more inviting. "Beautiful." she said simply, watching the small boats floating down the town's canals with an eagerness in her she couldn't explain. Or maybe she was anxious?

"It is, isn't it?" Harry agreed from next to her. He was watching the small town with soft eyes and a small smile. "This is the first town I visited in Fiore."

Kosmos looked from the town back to Harry. She'd tried to weasel some personal stories from the man during their travels but he was amazingly tight lipped about his past. It only made her all the more curious but she never pressed too hard about it. The one time she had he'd gone quiet for nearly two days and had this far off look in his eyes like he wasn't entirely there. Sometimes when he was quiet she could see the wheels turning in his mind and she was fine with that, he seemed like a thoughtful man and she wasn't one to complain. She'd always preferred thoughtful people. But it was weird to watch him lost in himself. Like intruding on some moment she shouldn't be part of.

"Shall we?" he turned more in her direction and gestured down toward Magnolia. The road they were on afforded them a good view of town because it wound through the foothills on the town's edge. It took them another hour just to safely clear the winding paths and reach the edge of the town. People bustled past them, some nervous and some just going about their normal tasks.

"Looks like they had one of those weird storms." Harry noted, nodding to some damage on roofs across the street from them.

She supposed that explained the slight tension in the air. Maybe everyone was still on edge, unsure if their day would be interrupted by another freak storm. "Which way is it to the guild hall?" her eyes roved the street looking for any obvious indication.

"Ummmm... that way?"

A small pause echoed between the two before Kosmos sighed. "You don't know?"

"I've... never actually been." Harry laughed, rubbing his head.

She stared for a moment longer before turning on her heel and walking in the direction he'd pointed leaving him to catch up. He scrambled up the street to her side with a good natured huff of laughter. It wasn't terribly long before they stumbled across the central street that ran the length of Magnolia. It was only really recognizable by the fact that it was wider than the other streets they had stumbled through up to that point but it stuck out to Harry and gave him a bit more of his bearings.

"Hmmm..." he made a noise as he scrunched his face a bit in thought. "Well we came from that direction, so the cathedral must be over that way."

"What does a church have to do with anything?" Kosmos asked eyes swing in the directions Harry pointed.

"The guild is supposed to be in the general direction of the cathedral unless I'm mistaken. At least that's what I heard from the inn keeper I talked with the last time I was in town." Harry scratched his head.

"What sort of guild hall do they have anyway?" she asked as they started in the direction of the cathedral. "They were dead last in the games for the last few years."

Harry turned a curious eye her way. "Dead last, huh..." It was hard for him to imagine that. Fairy Tail seemed to have a lot of exceptional, if odd, members. It seemed weird to him that even if someone was taken out of the equation for one reason or another that someone else wouldn't step up and pick up that slack. Especially with someone like Erza on their team. He'd watched the lacrima Kosmos had of the final event. The young woman was fierce. She wouldn't have allowed herself to be sidelined, and her devotion to the guild wasn't something one picked up in a short amount of time.

He wondered if the strange magazine with the old dates he'd found in the tunnels beneath Crocus had anything to do with the mystery. The group had felt a little odd to him. Since coming out of the clock Harry had noticed that he had a strange sort of sensitivity to anything that had warped time in some way. The majority of the Fairy Tail guild members had held some of that feeling. He wondered if it had anything to do with his clocks focus on magically amplifying numbers like two's, ten's, or 100.

"What?"

Harry blinked, taking himself out of his pondering to give Kosmos a quizzical look. "What?" he repeated back.

"You said something."

"Did I?" he brow quirked, but he was distracted almost immediately by the immaculate stone building looming over the right side of the street. "There's the cathedral. We should be close. Maybe we should just ask someone?"

Kosmos looked from side to side like she was casually assessing all the bystanders near her. Her hand darted out and she grabbed a younger kid by the arm. "You, tell us, where is the guild hall for Fairy Tail?"

The kid ripped his arm free of her grip and jumped back a few feet putting distance between himself and Kosmos. "Why should I tell you that?" he asked defensively, fists already raised in a way that spoke of someone used to having to defend themselves, if poorly.

"You certainly have a way with the kids Kosmos." Harry sighed. "It's alright. We're just here to talk with the guild master."

The boy turned from Kosmos to Harry and then back, seeming to weigh Harry's words for a long minute. Kosmos crossed her arms and stared petulantly back.

"My name's Harry." Harry offered a hand. "You are?"

"Harry?" The name shot out of the kid's mouth before Harry had even really finished speaking his question. The kid was looking at him caught between skepticism and awe. "You're the guy who helped Erza kill a dragon?"

Harry blinked. "I suppose..." his brow furrowed. "Is that really what I'm going to be known for?"

A quickly growing grin was spreading over the kid's face and he was bouncing on his toes now, too eager to keep calm. "How'd you do it? Erza said you punched it through the eye like it was nothing. You've gotta be at least as strong as Natsu! He's a dragon slayer, but I don't think he's ever actually killed a dragon."

"How is he a dragon slayer if he's never killed a dragon?" asked a nonplussed Harry even as the kid latched on to his arm and started to pull him up the street, a pensive Kosmos in tow.

Ten minutes, and more than a handful of questions, later saw them in front of one of the bigger guild halls he'd stumbled across in his time wandering. He'd avoided the others for the most part though. This time he let himself be pulled inside by an over eager but fiercely defensive child whom he'd just learned was named Romeo.

Harry wasn't sure what he was expecting when he made it through those doors but this certainly wasn't it. The large hall seemed dead. Just a few spare wizards lingered about and even those seemed like they were just taking a break before they headed back off to more important things. A few glanced up but being pulled in by Romeo seemed to dispatch them of any real curiosity. Harry wondered if the kid normally pulled strangers in off the street.

"I was wondering when we'd be seeing you."

Harry didn't startle at the sudden speech but it was a near thing. Makarov was by no means a large man and he seemed to have disappeared behind the mug he had sat beside him. Still, he was fixing Harry with a stern gaze even as Romeo attempted to gush to the guild master about how he'd stumbled upon Harry in the streets of Magnolia. Harry offered the old man a kind smile despite the mild tension that still lay between the two. He didn't begrudge the old man his suspicions. He even admired that 'protect your loved ones at any cost' kind of logic Makarov's guild seemed so proud of.

"Did I show up at a bad time?" his head tilted a bit to indicate his particularly empty guild hall.

Makarov sighed deeply and loudly. "Is any time a good time?" he asked gruffly, but he set aside his mug and fixed Harry with a curious look. "Most of the guild is out trying to keep the world from exploding, or they're out dealing with the celestial spirits. Everyone left here is just trying to keep Magnolia standing through all of this."

There was murmurs of agreement from around the hall.

"Is Magnolia getting hit hard?" Harry was curious why this town of all places would be having more of the freak storms than anywhere else.

"At least a few storms a day." Makarov confirmed with a grunt. There was a sudden gleam in his eye. "Mira told me you helped out in Hargeon."

"Ah... just a bit I suppose." Harry grinned.

"What brings you to Fairy Tail?"

"Well..." Harry glanced at the ever silent Kosmos who was watching the dialogue with amusement. "We were hoping to take you up on that offer to join... actually."

Makarov's eyes traced past Harry to where Kosmos seemed to have shrunken into herself a bit behind him. He gave her a short, evaluating look before he turned his attention to the left. "Romeo." the boy bounced back onto the scene almost immediately. "Why don't you take Miss...?"

"Kosmos." the girl supplied giving him a mildly uncomfortable look.

"Kosmos," Makarov acknowledged with a nod. "and see if we can't get her some food and a tour."

Romeo didn't seem wholly enthusiastic now that he knew Harry wouldn't be accompanying him but he did offer the girl a genuine smile. Kosmos lingered, eyes tracking between Harry and the guild master.

Harry gave her a reassuring smile. "Save me some food?" he asked hopefully.

She rolled her eyes but allowed the excitable Romeo to lead her away. The smile died down a bit as he turned back to Makarov who was watching the two ambling away. "You have questions?"

Makarov fixed his stare back on the black haired wizard in front of him. "A few." he admitted. "But this isn't the place for them."

The man jumped from his perch and started for some stairs.

"The guild is mostly empty but my children still have ears everywhere." Makarov noted as they climbed. "Best to have this conversation somewhere we won't be overheard."

Makarov's location of choice was some sort of office space. Scrolls littered the floor and desktop, books were haphazardly heaped against the wall, and dust seemed to have settled on anything that wasn't in the immediate vicinity of the desk. Still, Makarov rounded the thing and popped himself up into the chair so he was facing Harry.

"Forgive the mess. We only just got the guild back recently."

Harry glanced about, not at all offended by the mess but sort of irked that there was nowhere for him to sit. He didn't much like feeling like a child who was called to the headmaster's office. He waved his arm to the side muttering a simple conjuring charm and suddenly a soft armchair was there for him. He sank into it and fixed Makarov with a curious, but unbothered gaze. "What exactly did you want to talk about?"

"The Infinity Clock..." Harry repressed a sigh, might've guessed. "Lucy says you were inside it with her. You admitted as much in Crocus."

"Yes." Harry nodded. "My people built it quite a long time ago."

"Your people built a massive bomb?"

Harry could feel the sigh leak out of him. "Although it came to be known that way over time the clock was built as a magical amplification unit. In my time magic was waning, our world was on the brink of collapse. Even muggle... err, non magic users that is, were suffering effects. The planet was dying."

He could tell he had Makarov's attention. The old man was watching him intently, likely taking in the story and looking for signs of deceit.

"Our unit took in magical energy from the planet in small amounts over a set amount of time and then dispersed it back into the natural magic wells in the planet. It was experimental magic and we had no guarantee it would work, but I'd say the results were worth the risks." Harry gestured around him. "The ley lines of the planet are stronger than they were when I was a child, and magic seems accessible to most of the population now, even if in a slightly different way."

Makarov took a long moment to process that, leaning back and closing his eyes. When he met Harry's eyes again he seemed less hostile, even a bit welcoming if Harry dared say so. "So why were you in the clock?"

"The unit was designed to have a catalyst at its heart. Something that could take the magical energy and amplify it enough to make a difference and then release it at the end of its cycle."

"And that was you?"

Harry nodded. "There were... arguments." Harry conceded at the look on Makarov's face. "It was experimental magic at best and there was no guarantee it would work. Don't judge them too harshly. The thought of using human life... it didn't sit well with a lot of them either. But I saw hope. And in the end they couldn't do much to stop me from making my own decisions."

They both sat in the silence for a moment. Makarov soaking in the story and the enormity of Harry's sacrifice, and Harry just allowing the man to.

"Even if the experiment had failed, I doubt I would have regretted it."

Makarov fixed him with a level gaze. "And you broke the clock apart to save Lucy?"

"I could tell she hadn't willingly entered the ether like the others who sought the power stored within." Harry nodded. "She didn't deserve to be trapped inside like I had. The thoughts she shared with me while she was in there helped as well."

"Like what?" Makarov just seemed genuinely interested this time.

Harry smiled brightly. "A world filled with to the brim with magic and friends. She has a strong heart. She showed me a world that she felt was worth fighting for. I agreed with her."

Makarov nodded knowingly. "Well then my boy, just one thing left to say I suppose." he extended a hand to a startled Harry. "Welcome to Fairy Tail."


	14. A Place to Call Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Harry and Kosmos find a new home, and terrible ghosts.

"This guild is massive."

Harry noted the slight awe in Kosmos' voice as he turned her way and gave her a welcoming smile. He nodded at the seat next to him and she hopped up onto the bar stool and stared into the little kitchen area in front of them. After a second she swung her gaze back out to their new, chatting guild mates.

"And the members seem... troublesome."

Harry laughed at that. There weren't many guild members left in the guild hall, although more were showing back up by the minute. Even so, the small assortment of people left were odd to say the least and yet somehow they paled in comparison to the group Harry had fought with in Crocus. These members seemed almost tame next to Natsu and Lucy's group.

"They seem fine to me." Harry propped his head up against a hand and gave her a winning smile. He liked the eclectic collection of wizards. It reminded him of old times, if only a little.

"You two made it?"

Harry nearly jumped out of his skin as a voice sounded just behind the bar. A rather haggard looking Mirajane was stood there obviously having just arrived back if her windswept hair and small suitcase were anything to judge by. She was beaming at the two. Hand held to his chest in an attempt to ease his own racing heart Harry gave her a shaky smile in return.

"Just got here actually." Harry admitted.

"We joined." Kosmos summed up, giving Mira a flat look.

"That's great!" Mira looked genuinely happy at the news and didn't seem at all perturbed by Kosmos' tone. "Did you already get your guild marks?"

"Guild marks?" Harry repeated the words with confusion. Kosmos just showed off a pale green mark near her collar bone in answer. Harry instantly prodded the girl's skin. "Is that a tattoo?"

"Of course not!" Mira spoke up before Kosmos could explain. She seemed to be happily grinning as she produced what looked to Harry like a large wooden stamp. On its rubber surface Harry could see the mark that he'd spotted plastered on the Fairy Tail members he'd stumbled across thus far. "This is our guild stamp. When you receive your mark it means you've officially been recognized as a member of our guild."

Harry gently took the stamp from Mira's hand, much to her confusion and turned it over and over in his hand curiosity evident. "How does it work?" he asked, prodding the rubber section. "I don't see any ink. It doesn't look hot enough to brand someone and brands don't turn different colors anyway."

"Magic." Kosmos said simply.

Mira was just watching his assessment with open amusement and more than a little bafflement. She retrieved the stamp from him when he nearly dropped it after the fourth rotation. "Where would you like yours?" she asked.

He paused. "It's permanent?"

Mira's smile faded just a bit, but she seemed to catch that he wasn't so much indeterminate about being in the guild as he was wary about magic he didn't understand. "The mark will remain as long as you're a Fairy Tail wizard."

He caught her gaze and gave her a reassuring smile and held out his hand. She could just make out pale lines etched into the smooth skin before he pointed for her. She pressed the stamp to his skin and then withdrew, allowing the stamp to work its small magic and bind him into their guild. The mark glowed for a brief moment before fading into a a brilliant emerald green. Harry turned his hand over in front of his eyes, examining the mark with curiosity.

"How odd." he murmured more to himself than anything.

"So, how long have you two been in Magnolia?" Mira started, putting away the stamp and starting to move things about behind the bar. "You'll be needing a place to stay. There's a dorm not too far from here if you're interested, but it's women only so they couldn't put you both up there."

"Both?" Harry repeated the word and looked at Kosmos. "That's not necessary. She can stay in the dorm if she'd like. I'm sure I can make do."

Beside him the pink haired girl was quickly going beet red, whether in embarrassment or anger Mira didn't get to find out because at that precise moment the guild hall doors swung inward with enough force to bowl over any unsuspecting wizard who was stood in their path.

"We're back!" came and exuberant yell, followed swiftly by a boisterous laugh, and then a loud smash as the original speaker was smashed clear through the floorboards.

"You shouldn't be so reckless." declared a second person whose voice Harry recognized even as he turned toward the commotion. "You'll damage the guild hall."

"Didn't she do more damage?" Kosmos muttered beside him.

"Right..." came an exhausted agreement from the rubble as a dizzy Natsu extracted himself from the hole Erza had hit him into. More guild members were filing in around the two, some headed toward the bar and others toward clearly familiar spots amongst the many wooden tables. The noise level instantly ramped up as the new arrivals got comfortable.

"Ah! I know you!" Harry tilted his head toward the pink haired boy rushing his way eagerly. "You're the guy from Crocus! Harry!"

It felt like even the people who had been ignoring him before the arrival of this new group were suddenly interested. Natsu's fists were quite suddenly encased in flames as he came closer. Harry leaned backward, completely thrown for a loop.

"Did you come to fight me!?" Natsu jumped his direction and Harry did the first thing that popped into his head at the sight of fire coming straight for his face. He cast an over powered aguamenti charm. He even put a bit of extra effort into the attack thanks to the weird imbalance the world had been dealing with lately. Unfortunately he didn't know that Natsu and the group behind him had just returned from the spirit world where they had set nature back in balance. This resulted in a massive torrent of water knocking the kid flat on his face and pinning him that way until Harry stopped panicking and canceled the overpowered spell. He stared wide eyed at the result of his magic before hopping off his stool hastily.

"Oh man!" Harry stooped down so he was next to the twitching dragon slayer. "I'm so sorry! You startled me. Are you alright?"

Even as he panicked the stunned silence around the guild hall seemed to breaking into uproarious laughter.

"He's alright in my book!" someone shouted. A few others agreed.

"Looks like we know who he's gonna be picking fights with now." someone else added gaining a new round of laughter.

"My apologies." Harry glanced up at the hand being offered to him. "Natsu can get a bit heated when it comes to challenging people. Try not to take offense. He's a hot head, but he means well."

Harry took the hand and shook it even as he stood back up. "Erza." he greeted with a smile.

"Harry, right." she released his hand and gave Kosmos a glance over his shoulder. "It's good to be meeting under pleasant terms again. What brings you two to Fairy Tail?"

"Well." Harry displayed the mark on his hand. "We joined, actually."

Harry wasn't sure why, but the look of brief shock that crossed the girl's face was sort of unnerving. He hadn't thought he'd given the guild reason to think he disliked them any particularly large amount. Still, the look was gone soon enough to be replaced with a pleasant, welcoming smile. "It seems a welcome party is necessary then."

The guild cheered behind her.

"You certainly are a lively bunch." Kosmos sighed from her stool.

"It's more fun that way." Mira gave a small laugh as she set a plate in front of the girl. Kosmos gave the food a distrustful look and then another look to Mira.

"I don't have any money." she pointed out.

"That's okay." Mira waved it off. "You're new to the guild. You can pay it back later after you've taken a few jobs."

Kosmos didn't take a bite until the white haired girl turned to start making some other dishes. She sighed into the bite. It was good. She watched as Harry got dragged into an energetic retelling of the adventure Natsu had just gone through. She wondered if perhaps them joining a guild would mean that the two of them grew further apart. Would she be replaced with someone who was stronger, like Erza or Mirajane? She swallowed the food and watched as Mira sauntered off to have a short conversation with her brother who in turn joined in on the conversation Natsu and the others were having.

"You're Kosmos, right?"

The plant wizard nearly startled out of her seat. She turned to find a familiar girl and cat at her side. Wendy was propping herself up onto the stool next to her and the scowling cat at her side was giving Kosmos an evaluating look.

"I am." Kosmos answered after a small pause.

"It's nice to meet you under better reasons." the girl offered her a genuine smile that threw Kosmos off. The last time they'd met face to face Kosmos had been trying to kill her. How could she smile so sweetly. It was confounding, but it was beautiful too. Something inside her stomach twisted. "My name is Wendy and this is Carla. You're part of Fairy Tail now?"

Kosmos glanced at the cat and then back to her food. "I suppose I am."

"Is everything okay?" Wendy seemed concerned with her quietness, Kosmos supposed that being in a guild with the people here now had made the girl unaccustomed to more stoic people.

"Everything is... fine." Kosmos finished weakly, taking a bite of her food.

"That's good." Wendy beamed. "We're guild mates now. So we have to look out for each other."

Kosmos gave that a lingering thought as she took another bite. They were guild mates now. She was part of a guild.

"If you need us to show you to the dorms later we can." Carla offered a sort of knowing look on her face that Kosmos didn't care for at all.

She opened her mouth to tell the cat she should mind her own business, she could find the dorms on her own thank you very much, but she was cut off.

"Kosmos." she tried not to jump as a hand fell on her shoulder. "Some if the guild members mentioned a cabin on the edge of town we could rent. Let's go take a look."

Harry was grinning behind her. Kosmos felt her heart stutter a moment under the gaze and she was growing a bit warm. Harry hesitated, smile slipping a bit when she didn't instantly agree. Apparently her silence seemed a cue for Carla to butt in.

"Is that really appropriate?" Carla argued. "Two people of your ages living together alone?"

Harry's eyes traveled to the cat, to Kosmos, then back. He went bug eyed a second later and his face went red. "I, uh! It's supposed to be a two bedroom! And I get it if you don't want to. It was never my intention to be forward or anything!" he rambled, face bright enough to look like a stop sign. "It's just that... um... I'd have to get a place anyway, and uh... rents cheaper with two people... and I..."

Kosmos slipped from her seat and passed the rambling wizard who seemed more to be placating the guild members listening in than Kosmos herself. She felt a small smile tug at her lips as she grabbed his sleeve and tugged. "Let's go." she said and cut him short. He allowed her to pull him from the hall, still muttering reassurances and leaving behind their new amused guild mates.

"They seem nice." Wendy commented, smiling at the door they had just slipped through. Natsu was hustling to follow them with food shoved in his mouth and Happy trailed behind him. She turned to Carla who was watching the door intently. "What's wrong?"

Carla's eyes met Wendy's and her frown deepened just a bit. "No need to worry." she said contrarily, but Wendy knew her friend was worried about something. She wouldn't push, for now.

"Wait up!"

Harry paused as the pink haired Natsu came running into sight. He still had some sort of meat in his hand that was munching on contentedly. He stopped as he drew near and gave them a warm smile. Harry decided he might like the kid when he wasn't trying to fight him.

"You need someone to show you where the place is right?"

Harry paused and then nodded. He'd been flustered at the insinuations inside and he'd let Kosmos drag him out without much fuss because of it. The truth was he had no idea where exactly the place was. He'd just meant to bring Kosmos into the conversation that was being held about it at the other table.

"Well, you're in luck!" Natsu bellowed loudly. "Cause that cabin's real close to where Happy and I stay!"

"Aye sir!" Called the small cat, startling Kosmos who'd been closest. Neither had seen the cat that had apparently run up with Natsu.

"Let's see, it's... this way!" Natsu pointed off to their left with a grin.

"Lead the way." Harry said starting to walk in the direction indicated. "You and Happy have your own place then?"

"Aye!" Happy answered cheerily. "But we go to Lucy's a lot."

"Lucy's?" Harry gave the cat a look. "Why there?"

"She lives really close to the guild and she always has food." Natsu replied like it was obvious and he should have known.

"Right..." Harry gave Kosmos a disbelieving look. "So why's rent so cheap for this cabin anyway?"

Kosmos perked up, curious.

"No one's lived there for a long time." Happy started, a bit less chipper than usual.

"Does it need to be fixed up or something?" Harry went through his mental list of cleaning spells. He didn't know very many, but he had to admit that scourgify was a relatively versatile spell. He was sure if would knock out most of their needs.

"Kinda." Natsu supplied. "But mostly it's cause... it's haunted!" he delivered the last bit while giving Harry a deadpan stare that was obviously meant to be frightening. Harry just blinked and raised an eyebrow at the antics. If they thought he'd scare that easily they hadn't read him well.

"Haunted?" Kosmos asked, curious.

"I doubt it." Harry shook his head and continued walking. In all the time he'd spent wandering he hadn't come across any spirits. It should have been possible considering the amount of magical energy this world now held, there was more than enough for a spirit to manifest, but he just hadn't seen one and he hadn't heard of anyone who'd seen one outside of what were obviously superstitious ghost stories.

"Aw come on!" Natsu whined. "You don't believe in ghosts?"

"I didn't say that." Harry countered nonchalantly. "Just haven't seen any in a long time."

He could hear the group halt behind him, and he turned back to see them all eying him like he'd just admitted to something extremely weird. He raised an eyebrow, even Kosmos seemed put off by the statement. 

"You see ghosts?" asked a nervous sounding, shaking Happy. "Are there ghosts here now?"

"I just said I hadn't seen any in a long time..." Harry trailed off, confused.

"Oh man, talk about scary. It's gotta suck to see ghosts all the time. Does it have something to do with your freaky magic?" Natsu asked eying Harry in a way that made the wizard bristle just a bit.

"What do you mean freaky magic?" Harry asked edgily eying them darkly. He saw Happy take a half step back. "And Wendy told me you guys saw a dragon's ghost in Crocus, how is that any different?"

Natsu and Happy froze for a second before loudly exclaiming. "You're right!"

Harry turned back in the direction they'd been heading with a put upon sigh. "I'm the only one who's never seen a ghost?" he heard Kosmos mutter next to him. He glanced over to see she looked entirely too disappointed about that fact. He didn't have the heart to tell her it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. He supposed it was an empty sentiment anyway.

"That's it!" Natsu jogged ahead of them just a bit, pointing out a small cottage tucked into a grove of Oak trees. It was pretty small, all things considered, but if it proved too small for their liking Harry could always cast extension charms on the inside. The outside of the cottage was weather beaten and worn down like no one could be bothered to properly maintain it and weeds covered its small porch, but the building itself seemed sturdy enough and none of the windows were broken.

"And look!" Natsu declared pointing off to the side with a grin. "There's our place."

Sure enough, within sight was another small cabin even smaller than the one they were in front of and somehow looking worse for wear than the disused one they had just been examining. Theirs seemed to be absolutely covered in plant growth that was doing nothing to support the structure and cracked walls. It seemed a strong wind might topple the unsteady building, but Natsu was pointing it out proudly. "I see..." Harry nodded at the thing approvingly. Natsu seemed the excitable type and he'd hate to disappoint the boy by being too dismissive so early on in their relationship.

"Who owns this place." Kosmos had strode forward and placed a hand against the wall of the house they were surveying for themselves.

"Mira!" Happy supplied well... happily. "It used to be where she stayed with Lisanna and Elfman."

"But they live in the dorms now." Natsu finished a bit too quickly, in a way that suggested further questions weren't really welcome or recommended.

"So why does everyone think its haunted?" Harry asked. He pulled open the front door to reveal a dusty front room. Nothing about the place screamed 'paranormal' to him.

"Dunno." supplied a cheerful Natsu as he strode into the empty house.

"Mira said no one ever stayed longer than a week cause they'd hear things and stuff would get moved around." Happy explained, his nervousness from earlier reappearing by way of a subtle tremor and wide eyes.

Kosmos pulled open some drapes and light flooded the room. In the sunlight the room seemed far from threatening, and Harry wasn't feeling anything that might suggest an other wordly presence. "What do you think?" he asked his pink haired companion.

She glanced around before nodding. "I like it."

Harry nodded too. There wasn't much not to like. The floor plan was open but cozy. The place was dusty and in obvious need of cleaning but the patched walls and small details told the story of a well loved home in the past. "It's decided then. We'll take it."

They made a short trip back to town to let an excited, but somewhat apprehensive Mira and Elfman know about their decision and set up arrangements. After that they grabbed a few groceries with the little money Harry had left and headed back to their new home. The rest of their first official day as guild members consisted of a lot of cleaning. Harry stuck to general scouring charms in the larger areas like the rooms and living space while Kosmos focused on the bathrooms and kitchen. By the time the sun was setting they'd made a huge dent in the grime covering the place. They still didn't have much by way of belongings but they made a small pallet of blankets in the living room to sleep on that was still a million times more comfortable than the ground they'd been sleeping on for the last few weeks.

As the sun edged down over the horizon and the shadows grew longer in the house they bunkered down for a small meal in their makeshift beds, both thoroughly exhausted but content with the progress they'd made.

"Man, what a long day." Harry leaned back, letting his pillow support him. "Who knew so much could happen all at once."

Kosmos nodded mutely beside him. He studied her for a long moment.

"You know..." He started, then paused unsure. "I'm not really... great with people. So tell me if I'm misreading this, but you seem unhappy. You know you don't have to stay if you don't want to. You could go traveling to all kinds of places. No one would blame you for..."

He trailed off as she fixed him with a glare.

"Okay..." he held up his hands. "Misreading it then. Is something else upsetting you then?"

"You say you're not good with people, but you're always so bubbly." she inclined her head slightly. "I just...it's nothing. I'm fine. Goodnight."

Harry stared at her back for a long moment. It obviously wasn't nothing, but she clearly wasn't ready to talk about it. "Kosmos," she tensed just a bit at her name. "when you're ready to talk about it. I guess... I'm here."

He pretended not to hear the breathy laugh or the sniffling sound that followed it. Eventually her breathing evened out and she fell asleep while he laid there mulling over the events of the day. It wasn't long before he too started to doze off, and before long he drifted into a dreamless sleep.

All too suddenly he was startled awake by Kosmos shaking his arm. "Wha?" he tried to blink the sleep from his eyes as she shushed him.

"I heard something." she whispered, and sure enough now that he was waking up he heard it too. A rustling noise in their kitchen. "A ghost?"

Harry didn't want to dismiss the notion entirely. He had no idea what the increase in magic might do to spirits, but the ghosts of his time hadn't really had the ability to interact with physical objects. He got to his feet quietly and and padded over to the kitchen, just outside the doorway he peeked in not sure what he'd find. He could hear Kosmos padding up behind him, but all tension leaked out of him as his eyes picked out the figure on their counter.

"Lumos." a ball of light appeared in his hand, illuminating a passed out Natsu on the floor, a few of their meager supplies strewn out around him, and Happy gnawing away at some fish above him.

"Uh oh, busted."

"Why are you in our kitchen?"

Natsu rolled over, mumbling. He had clearly been asleep long enough to not be disturbed by the mild talking. How long had these two been perusing their kitchen? Happy gave Harry a nervous smile. "Sleep eating?"

Harry heaved a sigh. These brats were their new neighbors... Unbeknownst to him Kosmos was sending a chilling glare over his shoulder. Harry stooped, shaking Natsu's shoulder. "Oi, come on. It's the middle of the night. Go home."

"Mmmm..." the boy mumbled to himself for a second before popping awake with a yelp as Harry sent a mild stinging hex his way. "What the heck?"

Harry didn't even get to say a word. Instead the looming figure of Kosmos at the doorway seemed to do the trick. The dragon slayer jumped to his feet like the floor was on fire. "Out." the girl said with deadly venom in the word.

"Aye ma'am!" cried a clearly terrified Happy as he grabbed Natsu's scarf and high tailed it with the boy in tow, Natsu arguing the whole way.

"Well that mystery is solved at least." Harry stood back up, taking the fish bone from the floor with him. "Those two have probably been sneaking into the house every time it got rented out. I could see why that might terrify someone who couldn't handle them."

"Scum." Kosmos seethed.

"Let's not hold it too deeply against them." Harry laughed half heartedly, though he was disappointed to see the two had eaten a good half of their food. "I'm sure they didn't mean anything by it."

"My salmon..." her rage hadn't diminished and he finally seemed to grasp why. He'd let her pick out one expensive item at the market today as a sort of house warming. Apparently Happy had decided it would make a good snack and Harry was holding the evidence.

"Ah..." he frowned before vanishing the bones. "Don't worry, I'm sure we can scrounge up a job tomorrow with the guild and buy another."

Kosmos stomped her way back to the living room without another word and plopped into her pile of blankets. She rolled onto her side so she was facing the wall and said nothing, waves of irritation rolling off of her. Harry sighed again but followed. He retook his spot on the pile and shot her one last glance.

"Goodnight Kosmos." he offered before allowing himself to drift back to sleep. He silently hoped he wouldn't wake to more issues.


	15. Two Paths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry takes a job and Kosmos...well Kosmos does her own thing.

The morning dawned bright and Harry stretched as he rolled onto his back with a wide yawn. The night might have been eventful, but he’d slept soundly after the initial confrontation in the kitchen. He pushed himself up and was surprised to note that Kosmos was already gone from her spot. She’d rarely risen before him while they’d stayed in hotels. It wasn’t that she was a habitual late riser or anything, it was just that Harry was usually up at the crack of dawn. Looking through the window Harry surmised he might have had a bit of a lie in though. The sun was well above the horizon now.

He forced himself to his feet and made his way to the kitchen. It was still in a bit of disarray from Natsu and Happy’s nighttime escapades but he quickly put it to rights and made a small breakfast for himself. Kosmos still hadn’t made herself known by the time he finished and he was starting to get a bit worried about it. He cleaned what little mess he’d made and then scurried to his bag, intent to set out and find her but he paused. He gave the bag a considering look. It had been attached to his side since he first started wandering Fiore, but he had a home now. Did he really need to bring it with him? Old habits died hard he supposed. He glanced from the necklace looped through the drawstring to the identical marking on his hand. Maybe he should just wander down to the guild hall?

Mind decided he let go of the strap and let the bag settle back against the wall. It was almost a palpable feeling of unease that drifted through his mind at the motion and he tensed, but a second later the feeling was gone. He stared down at the bag, unsure that the feeling had really been connected to it at all, but still unsettled. He opted to grab the thing to ease his mind if nothing else. He opened the door to the bright sunshine and felt the last of his tension melt away.

Birds sang happily in the trees as he made his way down the cobblestone streets toward Magnolia. Eventually the path opened up to the magnificent view of the ocean he’d come to associate with the town. He paused in his walking to admire the picturesque landscape laid before him. 

“Hey buddy, up and at ‘em early huh?!”

Harry nearly stumbled off the path as an exuberant Natsu slapped him on the back. He turned a bewildered look on the pink haired mage. He wasn’t really sure how he wanted to handle the kid. One part of him wanted to hex him into next week for eating what little food they had. Another part reasoned that they were guild mates now and maybe this was just what it meant to be comrades in this strange new world. He settled for polite indifference about the event for now. It was one incident, and he doubted the boy was likely to repeat it after Kosmos got hold of him. “Is this early for you?” 

Natsu gave him a measuring look before beaming. “‘Course!” he said, tone as bright as his grin. “Anything before noon is early right?”

Harry snorted. 

“So whatcha gonna do?” Natsu asked eagerly. “If you don’t have anything planned we should fight.”

Natsu was already cracking his knuckles, grin somehow managing to stretch even more manically. Harry gave him an incredulous look. “You can’t be serious.”

Natsu’s smile dimmed somewhat.

“Why would I want to fight you?” Harry was giving the boy a look that he hoped conveyed just how outrageous he thought the idea was. “Have I offended you or something?”

“Don’t take him too seriously. Natsu threatens to fight everyone.”

Harry glanced down to see Happy padding up to them and rubbing sleep from his over large eyes. “That doesn’t seem like the best idea.” He gave the boy a glance.

“‘Course it is! How else are we gonna find out who’s the strongest?!”

“It’s a bad idea.” Happy nodded in agreement. “He gets smacked into the ground a lot.”

The reactions at the guild hall yesterday were starting to make more sense. Harry gave the kid an evaluating look. A brash personality with an indomitable will to prove himself. Natsu reminded him of a red head he’d once known. His gaze softened as Natsu yelled at Happy about having his back. Maybe a bit more violent than Ron had been, closer to Ginny in personality.

“I was going down to the guild, would you two like to join me?” Harry offered, interrupting what seemed to be an escalating conflict if dramatic finger pointing was anything to gauge by. He offered them both a gentle smile when they looked his way. 

With their destination settled, and the melodramatic quarrel abated, the three wandered down the streets toward Fairy Tail. Before long the guild hall was in sight and with it a certain pink haired girl. A breath of relief escaped him as he set sights on her. “Kosmos!” he yelled, flagging her down.

Her pink head bobbed in his direction in greeting as the group approached but she froze for half a second as she realized who he was with. Then she was in motion and plants were sprouting from between the town’s cobbled roads. “You!” she cried out in irritation as she directed large vines to whip at Natsu and Happy.

“Now that’s more like it!” cried an excitable Natsu as he jumped out of the way.

Harry watched for a second before heaving a sigh. Was she really still this upset? Had she come here looking for these two specifically? He wondered if he should step in. Surely Makarov would appreciate it at the very least. Having a new guild member wreck Magnolia had to look bad. 

“Trust Natsu to get into a fight first thing in the morning.”

Harry turned to the voice and found Lucy to his left. She was regarding the fight with open amusement, but Harry didn’t dismiss the mildly nervous side glance in his direction or the spacious gap she’d left between them. “Good morning.” he nodded.

“G-good morning!” she responded with an abrupt nod. He raised a brow.

“Fish thief!” Kosmos bellowed as she swung for the blue cat. Happy froze and the vine about to smack him seemed to sense his hesitance and stopped as well. Happy turned watering eyes on Kosmos.

“You’re right...” he mumbled. “I’m just... a horrible fish thief...”

Even Natsu had paused in his attacks now, unsure eyes turned to his companion.

The cat’s ears drooped. “I guess I’ll have to... give you mine.” He held aloft a small fish that he pulled from his sack. It looked like a mackerel or some other common river fish, Harry had never been good at determining fish breeds. It didn’t seem to matter much to the girl though. 

All the ferocity Kosmos had been attacking with seemed to drain out of her. She slumped to the ground and her vines went limp around her. Harry could make out a crimson blush marking her face and he swore he heard the word, ‘beautiful’ drift across the empty space. Whatever her reasons it seemed Kosmos was dropping her blood feud over the salmon, at least for now.

“So you were on your way to the guild right?” Lucy spoke up, obviously uncomfortable but trying to be civil. “Did you have plans for today?”

Harry turned her way. She seemed more tense each time they met, like she expected him to suddenly give way to some nefarious alter ego bent on destroying her and her guild. “Nothing solid. I was going to find Kosmos and see about taking a job. We don’t have much in the way of money and unfortunately what little supplies we’d managed to buy yesterday were consumed by those two.” he nodded to Happy and Natsu.

She seemed startled for a moment before she tensed. “That’s what this was about?” she seemed to say more to herself than anything before fixing her friends with a glare. “IT’S BAD ENOUGH WHEN YOU TWO HANG AROUND MY HOUSE ALL DAY AND EAT MY FOOD! WHY ARE YOU DOING IT TO THEM TOO!?”

Harry flinched from the sudden noise. Natsu seemed to fair little better at first but he fixed Lucy with a grin that seemed a little too carefree.

“Lucy!” he declared happily. “What’s up?!”

“Don’t try to brush this off!” Lucy called, hands going to her hips as if the argument were almost rehearsed. “You’re always breaking into people’s houses! How are you going to make it up to them?”

Natsu had opened his mouth to retort good naturedly, but at the question he actually seemed to pause. He gave Harry a considering look. A wide grin that Harry didn’t much like the look of broke out of the kid’s face. With no preamble Natsu had crossed the space between them and grabbed Harry’s arm and was actively pulling him toward the guild hall at a brisk pace.  
“Hey, wait...” Harry weakly tugged at his arm as he stumbled to keep up. “What... Natsu..?”

“We gotta get a job right?” Natsu asked without looking back. “We’ll find someone who’s paying a bunch and help you out and then we’ll be even.”

Harry gave him a skeptical look but let himself get pulled through the doors of the guild hall and up to the job board. Lucy and Happy had followed at a more sedate pace but he could just catch the annoyed glance Lucy shot Natsu. He got the feeling Harry wasn’t the first person Natsu had manhandled like this. He pulled his arm from the dragon slayers loosened grip. 

Natsu was staring intently at the job offers. Harry turned his attention there too but had little more than a minute to scan the bills before Natsu exclaimed loudly and pulled one down, shoving it at Harry’s face. “What about this one?!” 

Harry grabbed the paper and drew it from his face enough that he could read it. Immediately he was struck by the image of spiders on the page. He was pretty sure he paled dramatically as his childhood adventures with the acromantulas came racing to the forefront of his mind. “I... uh.” he swallowed. “Maybe a different one?” He didn’t much want to know how much larger magical spiders could get in a world so full of magical energy.

“Awww... but this one looks cool.” Natsu whined. 

“The reward’s barely enough for one person.” Lucy intervened, much to Harry’s surprise and delight. “What about this one?”

She held a notice for help finding a manuscript that had been stolen by thieves. The reward was fairly substantial and even split four ways would be enough to make sure Harry and Kosmos had a decent amount of money to start lives in the new town. “This one looks okay.” Harry agreed. Noticing Natsu’s downtrodden look he quickly added. “And it seems we might need to fight the thieves that took it as well.”

Natsu perked up. “Ah yeah!” he raised a fist. “We’re gonna kick some butt!”

“What do you think... Kosmos...?” Harry noticed she hadn’t followed the group and frowned. She was standing near the bar talking with Mira. Odd. He had the distinct impression she hadn’t cared for Mira when they’d met the first time. “One second.” he told the group before making his way to his pink haired friend. “Kosmos?”

She glanced up as Mirajane went back to tending her bar. 

“We’ve been invited on a job with Natsu and Lucy.” he started. “It seems-”

“I’m not going.”

He blinked, taken aback by the abruptness of the statement. “Is everything alright?”

She gave him a measuring look. “Fine.” she replied levelly. She didn’t seem upset but there was an edge to her words he couldn’t work out. His eyebrows drew together in worry. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to come?” he asked frowning. “It’s a good chance to earn some money and make friends.”

She nodded.

“Alright.” he reluctantly agreed. He gave another unsure glance over his shoulder as he rejoined Natsu’s group. It seemed odd to him for Kosmos to not join him. He’d sensed a sort of unease at the prospect of joining the guild before they’d come to Magnolia. He’d assumed she would have been attached to him for longer. She didn’t seem the type to make friends easily, but as he walked away to wherever this job was taking his group he saw her strike up another conversation, this time with a green haired woman wearing a cowboy hat.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The door bell of the immense mansion trilled through a rather long song. It was the sort of ‘over the top’ you just never really expected, even from someone with an obvious fortune at their disposal. The chime lasted long enough that it was just ending as the butler opened the front door to greet them with a caustic look and an unfriendly, “Can I help you?”

“We’re here about the... uh job?” Lucy got half way through the sentence before stammering to a stop. “From Fairy Tail?”

The look on the butler’s face made it obvious he didn’t believe a word of her explanation but he stepped aside to allow them entry anyway. 

“Thanks.” Harry nodded with a disarming smile as he stepped through the doorway. The man gave him an unimpressed look and passed the group to take the lead. The twisted through several ornate and ridiculously large hallways before coming to stop in what Harry was sure was an office. A large desk took over one corner of the room and two couches sitting face to face occupied the center of the room near a fireplace. A roaring fire was blazing in the fireplace even though Harry was sure it couldn’t have been less than twenty degrees out. 

“Oh, thank goodness you’ve come!” a small man, possibly half Harry’s height sprung forward as they entered. He was wringing his hands and looked ready to hug them just for their acceptance of his job. 

“Yeah... er.. hi.” Harry nodded. Somehow he’d been shoved to the front of their impromptu group. 

“The job posting said to come here first.” Lucy spoke up, either sensing his unease at being the group’s spokesperson or just wanting to get on with the conversation so they could leaving. It was a bit warm in the room, Harry had to admit. 

“OF course, of course.” the man gestured for them to follow him to the couches and they did so, for the most part. Natsu seemed to prefer to wander about the room and stare intently at the extravagant decorations.

“The item you’re recovering is a medical journal from a prominent doctor I paid to research my illness.” the man explained fidgeting under Harry’s curious, and Lucy’s polite, gaze. 

“Why would someone steal a medical journal?” Natsu asked, distracted momentarily from prodding a golden dragon on the mantle.

“They could sell the information.” Lucy suggested.

“Precisely!” the man exclaimed. “It’s rather private information in the file you see. It could be terrible if turned into the wrong hands. Just terrible. You must retrieve it!”

“Who stole it?”

“The very doctor I paid for the examinations!” the man said sounding furious, but nervous as well.

“That’s horrible!” Lucy exclaimed.

“Why would he do that?” Happy asked quietly, his tone suggesting he agreed with Lucy’s assessment.

“He’s a horrible cheat.” their client huffed. “Find the files and bring them to me so I can dispose of them.”

He slid a different file across the table to them and Harry picked it up curiously. Inside was a picture of a middle aged man in worn clothing. He looked particularly tired if the rings under his eyes were anything to judge by. Behind the photo were several pages detailing everything from the man’s favorite food, which was a weird thing to know, to his frequented locales. Harry closed the folder on the doctor as Lucy agreed again to work the case.

They left the mansion pretty soon afterward with tearful thanks from the man. 

“Alright!” Natsu threw a clenched fist into the air. “Let’s go kick this doctor’s butt and get the reward!”

“The file he gave us has a lot of spots the doctor frequented.” Lucy said flipping through the pages. “We could split up and check them out.”

“I have a better solution.” Harry smiled and grabbed a stick from the side of the road as they walked back toward the town they’d passed through. “Point me, Doctor Moreno.”

The stick twirled in the palm of his hand as his companions came to a standstill to watch the display with curiosity. After a long moment the stick came to a standstill pointing vaguely to Harry’s right. Natsu prodded the stick. “What’s it supposed to do?”

 

Harry nodded int he direction the stick was pointing. “The Doctor is that way.” 

The group took a second to process that information. Natsu beamed. “You’re coming on all our jobs!” he exclaimed slamming a hand into Harry’s back and making him drop the stick and give the pink haired dragon slayer a scowl.

“That is really convenient.” Lucy agreed, giving him a tentative smile.

“Come on Lucy! It’s awesome!” Natsu disagreed. “He just made this way easier! Point the way compass man!”

“Hey Lucy, don’t you have a spirit that can do that?” Happy goaded as they set off in the direction Harry had pointed. 

“Do you really?” Harry stepped in before the two could start an argument. He’d been curious about the celestial spirits for awhile now.

“Ah... yes. His name is Pyxis.” her steam petered out. 

“I’d love to meet some of your spirits when we have a chance. I’m curious how their magic works.”

Lucy avoided his eyes and sort of nodded. “Boooooring.” Natsu cut in. “We should fight instead! My magic’s way better! Come on!” His fists flared with flame.

“Natsu! We’re on a job!” Lucy yelled smacking the excitable dragon slayer in the back of the head.

“I think I’ll politely decline.” Harry laughed. “Lucy is right. We should focus on the mission for now.” He cast another point me spell. This one stopped sooner. “We’re pretty close now.”

They’d wandered into a seedier part of town and the drunks slumped against walls eyed them suspiciously as they moved past them. 

“Seems like it’s pointing at that building.” Harry gestured to what seemed to be a tavern with an inn attached. He glanced at his guild mates. Were kids even allowed to go into places like this in Fiore? What were the alcohol laws like? If he could base it on what he’d seen back at the guild then people could start drinking fairly young here. After all, the girl in the bikini was drinking by the barrel somehow. He shrugged. They’d tell him if they couldn’t go into some place. He pushed through the door and was greeted by a dingy interior that could do with a few more lamps. 

Between the lacking light and the number of people that had chosen to work hoods into their attire they definitely would have been at a disadvantage with Harry’s point me spell. He cast it once more and it landed pointing directly at a man slumped over the bar’s edge. He made to move forward but that seemed to finally get them noticed by the bar’s less than savory inhabitants. 

“Yous got business here?” a rather large man asked, grimy teeth completing a rather menacing aura. 

“Ah, yes.” Harry smiled politely despite the rank air that wafted from the man’s mouth. “In fact we do.”

“Yeah, so move out of the way before we make you move.” Harry grimaced and could see the mental picture of Natsu’s fire flaring to the life. He’d clearly never heard the adage that you get more flies with honey than vinegar. 

The large man laughed uproariously. “I’d like to see you try.”

Harry wasn’t the most well spoken of people. He put his foot in his mouth more often than he was comfortable with, but he knew that was the wrong thing to say to Natsu. 

Fists started to fly as an honest to goodness bar brawl broke out. Harry stepped out of the large man’s way and yanked Lucy down as a chair flew over her head. Natsu seemed entirely in his element. 

“The doctor’s getting away!” Lucy yelled over the noise. Harry followed her pointing to see she was right. The man was ducking through a back door. He grabbed Lucy’s hand and began to weave them through the chaos, leaving Happy to watch Natsu’s back. He was sure the kid would be fine. No one besides him seem to be wielding any strong magic.

Harry crashed through the door into a kitchen, tugging Lucy in behind him. Across the room a familiar figure startled badly and then, seeing who it was, took off. Harry and Lucy shared just the briefest of glances before taking off after him. They wove through alley after alley hot on his trail until he eventually made a mistake and rounded a corner too sharply. He crashedinto the side of the building with a pained yell. The two Fairy Tail wizards caught up, panting.

“Stop... right there...” Lucy got out in between pants.

“Who are you people?” The doctor seemed panicked. He was eying the lower of the two roofs like he might be able to jump that high, but his wince belied his inability to do it.

“We’re with Fairy Tail.” Harry explained. “We just want the research data you stole.”

“Stole?!” the doctor said the word with such surprise there was no way it wasn’t genuine. “I didn’t steal anything!”

“We were hired by Mr. Frances to get back the medical data.” Lucy argued. “You-”  
“I didn’t steal anything!” he spat back before she could finish. “We were supposed to do business together. There were promising trials on a new medication, but he wanted me to test them on sick children. We were skipping years of study. They could have died. When I refused he kicked me from the project. He said he’d find a new doctor with fewer reserves. So I took my notes and left.” 

Harry felt a cold ball of dread in his stomach. It was far from the worst thing he’d ever heard, but it still surprised him how callous people could be. 90 percent of humanity might be decent but the small portion that weren’t seemed to have the most power and influence. Lucy shot him an odd look he couldn’t work out.

“That’s...” Lucy seemed torn between wanting to believe that someone couldn’t be that terrible, and wanting to believe that the man in front of them wouldn’t make something like that up.

Harry let the tension leak from his stance. He wasn’t about to fight this man until they knew if he was telling the truth. “Can you give us proof?”

The doctor seemed shocked that they were even listening to him. He floundered for a moment, unsure. Then he nodded enthusiastically. “I have a recording.” he rifled through his pockets for a moment before producing a weird looking crystal. A tap it emitted recorded voices. Harry could indeed identify one as belonging to their temporary employer. The other belonged to the man in front of them. They argued for a few minutes about medical trials before the recording cut out.

“The research... is useful... it could eventually lead to cure. But it’s years away.” the doctor said in a subdued voice. “And he... doesn’t have that long.”

Harry nodded with a frown. Lucy seemed conflicted. Harry turned to her with a sigh. “Can you help the doctor back to the bar and check on Natsu?”

Lucy nodded hesitantly. “What about you?”

“I think I’m going to have a word with our employer.”

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It took him less time to make it back to the mansion than he thought it would but the day was still waning. When he rang the bell he was greeted by the same unenthusiastic butler and led to the same boiling office. There was a fair amount of hope on Mr. Frances’ face as Harry entered, but it seemed to wane as Harry fixed him with a stern look. Harry had learned that look from Minerva Mcgonagall. He knew exactly how much it made on rethink their life decisions.

“You lied to us.” Harry said with no preamble. “The doctor didn’t take anything that didn’t already belong to him.”

The man wrung his hands. 

“I understand why you were desperate.” Harry said and the man flinched. “But it doesn’t make it right.”

The man looked close to tears.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Harry started, chastising done. “what exactly is wrong?”

He took a moment to compose himself. “I have a... condition. It makes it so that my body has a hard time regulating my temperature.”

Harry nodded as the man explained the intricacies of his disease and the studies the doctor had done over years to understand and treat it. Finally he stopped the man with a raised hand. Despite words that were probably said in haste, and no small amount of panic at the thought of his impending death, he didn’t seem to be a bad person. He likely would have recanted his statement about human trials long before they ever reached that point of actually happening. Harry had made up his mind. 

“Do you mind?” Harry motioned to the spot next to the man. Unsure, but curious the man nodded. Harry was never great at healing. It required an intricacy he’d never really found a niche in, but what he lacked in imagination and delicate touch he felt he could make up for with power now. 

He placed a hand on Mr. Frances’ back and pushed magic from himself into the man. Immediately the man flinched but Harry held him in place. His magic searched and twisted and he could feel the man grow feverish beneath his palm. With a gasp Harry let the man go. 

“Amazing.” the man was staring at his own palm and then at Harry. “It’s so incredibly warm. I haven’t felt such heat in years. Have you... have you cured me?”

Harry shook his head sadly. “I doubt it. I’ve never been gifted in healing.” he supplied and the man’s face wilted. “But I think I’ve bought you time. Enough time to do the research properly this time hopefully.”

The man looked awed at the statement. The abashed and unsure. “You think anyone would work with me?”

“I do.” Harry said with conviction. The doctor had seemed angry, sure. But Harry had seen sad resolution in his eyes. “Assuming a proper apology was given.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“I’m still really confused.” Natsu said, watching the doctor and Mr. Frances talk out their differences. 

“Nothing new there.” 

Harry chuckled at Happy’s comment even as Natsu started tugging at the cat’s backpack and arguing his case. He turned away from the two as Mr. Frances approached, beaming. 

“I owe you more than I can really say.” the man bowed his head and then held out what seemed to be the money for their reward. “This was more than I asked for. I think I should pay you kids more than I offered.”

“Oh... uh...” Harry struggled to find the right words.

“We can’t accept more than the guild agreed to.” Lucy helped. “It would look bad.”

“Right!” Harry enthusiastically cottoned on, thankful the girl could tell he needed an out. 

“Then please, accept your reward and this.” he offered the money to Lucy and a small stone to Harry. The wizard took it curiously. “It’s not really worth anything really, but they’re supposed to be good luck.”

It was a pretty stone, emerald in color and roughly the size of an acorn. The gesture was nice, but he wasn’t really sure what he’d do with it. “Thanks.”

 

“No, thank you.” 

 

“Let’s go!” 

Harry found his arm yanked impatiently toward the road. He gave one last wave to the man he’d helped before following. 

“Maaaaan!” Natsu complained loudly. “How booooring! We barely got to do anything.”

“You got into a bar fight Natsu, how is that nothing!?” Lucy demanded.

Natsu, uncharacteristically serious turned his eyes to Harry. “You did all the work.”

Harry blinked. “I’m... sorry?”

Natsu tossed the bag with the money in it at Harry. “That’s definitely yours.”

Harry gave him an incredulous look then looked to Lucy. She seemed to want to argue, but he had a feeling Natsu made rash decisions like this quite often. She sighed. “He’s not wrong.” she said finally. “You did most of the work.”

“I... don’t really know what to say.”

Natsu grinned. “No problem man!” he said, throwing his arms behind his head and striding out ahead of the others. “What else are friends for?”

Lucy groaned suddenly. “Why does this always happen? How am I supposed to pay my rent?” 

Harry laughed at the groups antics as they made their way back to Magnolia. He hoped that Kosmos had had as good a day as he had.

 

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am here, and surprisingly alive. I know. Enjoy the update. I'll try not to go another year before an update. I make very few promises though.


	16. Path Two

Kosmos woke early after their first night in the house. She was still having a hard time adjusting to the fact that this would be her new home. The place was cleaner now after their efforts, but it still seemed a far cry from what anyone would call a ‘home’. 

She rummaged through her pack for a bit marveling at how little she really had now that she was looking at it all spread out in front of her in this mostly empty house. If someone had tried to convince her that she would leave Crocus and backpack across Fiore with little more than a spare change of clothes and some water canteens provided by a stranger she’d have called them crazy. She never pictured herself as the most materialistic person, but she’d always enjoyed her creature comforts. 

And Harry was an entirely separate and weird part of the equation as well. She barely knew him before she decided life seemed more interesting with him around. She’d packed up and abandoned a life and job in Crocus to follow him and he had neither asked her to nor minded her company. He’d provided her company, protection, and food for a while now. She felt more than a little indebted. 

She scooped her items back into her bag and made her way through the living room to the door. She stopped to marvel at the sight of Harry still sleeping, something she’d never seem him do so late in the morning, before continuing out into the morning air. It was just a little bit brisk outside and she stretched as she gave their front yard a glance. It was slightly over grown, but a decent size. She wondered if maybe she could make a vegetable garden here.

She didn’t give it too much thought, instead she wandered back toward Magnolia. The town itself was quite beautiful in the morning light. The sunlight reflected off the water making the canals look like streams of gold between the streets. 

“Good morning.”

Kosmos startled and nearly slipped off the stone walkway. Behind her was the Fairy Tail barkeep and new guild mate Mirajane. The white haired girl had a look of surprise which morphed into apologetic in a second. 

“I’m sorry. I thought you heard me walking up.” The white haired girl explained. 

“It’s fine.” Kosmos snapped out. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about Mira at the moment. The girl had helped them find housing, but she had also been entirely too familiar with Harry. It had taken Kosmos over a week to speak openly with the strange mage, but Mira had showed up and started barking orders and Harry had listened and then they’d had a chat like they were old friends. It had irked her to say the least. 

“How did the night go?” Mira asked, all sunshine and rainbows despite Kosmos’ tone. 

Kosmos felt her mind drawn back to the pink haired idiot and his cat that had broken into their kitchen and felt her irritation rise a bit higher. “Fine.”

“That’s good.” Mira motioned for them to walk together and after a moment Kosmos relented. “So what are your plans for the day? Are you and Harry going to take a job?”

She hadn’t thought about it honestly. It was weird to think they weren’t just going to wander to their next destination. Mira kept talking as her mind wandered until something broke through. “What was that?”

Mira blinked and gave her an indecipherable look. “We used to have a garden out front. My sister loved planting carrots in it.”

Kosmos nodded. 

“Are you interested in making a garden?” Mira asked with a smile.

Kosmos nodded emphatically. If money was tight she could help supplement their food with a garden. She deflated. She didn’t have money for seeds though. 

“There are some vendors in town who might be willing to trade you the things you need for favors.” 

Kosmos raised her head and saw Mira giving her a knowing look. She must’ve read Kosmos like a book. 

“I know Bisca is good friends with a local farmer. They saved their harvest from wild pigs a while ago. Maybe she can help you out.”

Kosmos could feel the excitement building in her. “Which one is Bisca?”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Kosmos waited patiently, watching Harry’s back until he’d faded into the distance. It wouldn’t do for him to spoil the surprise. She was lucky Natsu and Lucy had asked him along on a job so quickly. She’d been worried that Harry would have a harder time fitting in. As much as she’d come to like him he was an odd man. 

She collected the small paper Mira had given her and set out for the address Bisca had talked about. It was a small farm and it did indeed seem to need some help. Their fields were destroyed by the odd weather patterns. An older man was going around fixing fences as animals milled about behind him.

Kosmos braced herself for a moment before striding forward. “Excuse me sir.”

The man glanced up and took in her appearance for a moment before his set his sights back on his fence. “What you want?” he asked brusquely. “I got a lot to do so I got time to be helping others out.”

“I actually came...” Kosmos swallowed. “I wanted to help you with your fields. I was hoping in return you might help me get some seeds and gardening supplies?”

He took her measure again, this time a bit longer. But she seemed to have properly gained his attention this time. “Working the fields is hard work.”

She set her shoulders. “I can do it.”

“Most of my crops are near destroyed.”

“I can help.” she insisted.

He gestured to the fields. “I got a lot of work to do making sure we don’t lose any more livestock. If you can get the rows realigned and the supports back on the tomatoes we’ll see about providing some seeds.”

She nodded and set off for the fields. Once she was there she could see just how much of a challenge she faced. The neat rows of seedlings had been ripped from the ground in some areas. In others the rows were entirely gone. Wilted tomato plant lay crumpled on the ground where their supports had snapped. The whole mess was in disarray. She laid her hand against one of the small seedlings. It was tiny, just barely the size of her thumb, but she knew it was a carrot. She righted it on the ground and pulsed a small bit of power into it. As its roots retook into the ground she could feel all the plants around her. She pushed her power into them as well. Slowly their roots shifted and aligned into the neat rows they had once been planted in. 

It took her nearly two hours but eventually the fields looked like fields again. Healthy green sprouts popped from the ground every few feet and the tomato plants were larger and healthier than any tomato plant Kosmos had ever seen. She was exhausted from the sheer amount of power she’d put into the work and covered from head to toe in soil, but it was worth it to see the fruits of her labor. 

The clang of metal on stone drew her attention. The farmer had just entered the fields and the green haired Bisca was beside him. Both looked utterly shocked. The farmer had dropped his bucket. Kosmos hustled back over to their side. 

“You did all this in two hours?” the man asked before she could say anything. She nodded. “You’ve saved me months of work.”

Bisca was grinning. “I’ll be darned. I guess Mira was right about you after all.”

Kosmos wasn’t sure what that meant but she decided to think on it later. For now she settled for trying to keep her feet as the farmer began to shake her hand enthusiastically. 

“Anything you want kid. You got it.”

She left the farm with packets of seeds from all the vegetables and fruits she knew she and Harry liked. After talking with Bisca the man had also agreed to send over some simple gardening equipment to help her get started. Kosmos had left elated and made her way to her second destination.

Mira had told Kosmos about a small shop that the guild had helped several years ago. Apparently Mira’s brother had stopped some priceless family heirloom from being stolen and the shop keeper had always wanted to help out the guild whenever they could. There weren’t a lot of chances for a furniture store to help out a guild whose members mostly stayed in dorms though. 

Kosmos opened the door to the shop and a cheery bell announced her arrival. 

“Welcome!” came the immediate, happy response. A woman in thirties edged around a counter and approached. “How can I help you today?”

Kosmos tried not to panic. She wasn’t sure why but the woman’s cheery attitude and disarming smile were making her miles more nervous than the farmer’s short responses. She withdrew the note Mira had given her and held it out. The woman took it with a smile and read through it before beaming. 

“You’re with Fairy Tail?”

Kosmos nodded mutely.

“We’d be happy to help you! What sort of furniture did you need?”

Kosmos swallowed the lump in her throat. “Well we... don’t really have anything... actually.”

There was a gleam in the woman’s eye now. “Describe the house to me.”

Kosmos described the house three times, each with growing detail as the woman prodded for more and more. She drew up a small sketch of the house on a piece of paper and seemed to be labeling pieces of furniture they’d need for the house. When she got to the dining table Kosmos stopped her.

“We don’t... really have any money.” she said in a panic. What the woman was describing as she sketched out plans sounded incredibly expensive. Even if they had money she doubted Harry would want her to spend this much on furnishings. The woman paused and gave Kosmos an odd look. 

“You didn’t read the note?”

Kosmos shook her head. She’d read the address on the outside but since Mira had asked her to give the note to the woman she figured whatever was inside had been personal. 

“Your guild is paying for the expenses. And we give a pretty hefty discount to Fairy Tail members too.” she said smiling kindly. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep you on budget. But a house can’t be a home without furniture.”

They spent twenty more minutes with the woman detailing what they might want style wise while Kosmos marveled at the thought of the guild paying for anything. She wondered why the guild was helping them this way when they hadn’t even proven their worth yet. 

“Why don’t you go rummage through the clothing over there while I try to pick out some pieces for you.”

Kosmos followed the woman’s gesture and saw that, sure enough, part of the shop seemed to be dedicated to clothing. Racks and racks of the stuff were set up by the far wall. She paused, unsure for a moment before moving forward. She leafed through shirts and skirts and dresses for a while before she found anything she liked. A periwinkle dress that formed into five pieces and flared out like an inverted lily. The long sleeves ended in ruffles and it was lined with ornate swirls. It was beautiful. She wanted it badly, but surely when the woman had told her to search through the clothes she hadn’t meant for Kosmos to take such a fine piece. She hesitated. 

After a long moment of consideration she set it to the side and kept looking. She came across a few interesting pieces for Harry including a vest similar to the one he wore all the time but in a deep blue. The woman wandered over as she was considering another, simpler dress.

“Did you find anything you liked?”

Kosmos nearly jumped out of her skin but she just managed to keep from dropping the dress. She gestured to the small pile on a chair nearby and the woman laughed and smiled. 

“Good, good.” She helped Kosmos pick the items up and move them toward the counter where she took note of their numbers and began to bag them. When she got the dress she paused and gave Kosmos a lingering look. “One moment.”

Kosmos froze as the woman went into a door behind her. She knew the dress had been too good to be true. Surely it had been a mistake to have it out there. 

“I made this to go with that dress. It’s such a unique style not many people have shown intrest in it.” the woman had returned with a headband and black slip. “I think it’ll look gorgeous on you though.”

Kosmos felt the knot in her chest loosen. “Thank you.”

The woman smiled, gentler than before. “My pleasure. My husband should be back with our wagon soon. If you give me an address I’ll get this all delivered for you.”

Kosmos wrote down directions to their house as best she could and left with assurances that their items would arrived soon. She traveled back to the house with the new clothing and and seed packets in tow. She set everything down inside and was happy to see that Harry still hadn’t made it home from his job with the group. Maybe this could all be a surprise. 

She went back outside and walked around back to find a familiar head bobbing along as he unloaded supplies from a wagon. The start of a plotted garden could already be seen. In the time she’d spent with the furniture lady the farmer had come along and started plowing the land for a garden. He had even made some small wooden boxes along the ground to help them organize the stuff they planted.

“Howdy!” 

Kosmos hadn’t seen Bisca helping out. She was a little overwhelmed. The farmer’s attention was drawn by Bisca’s greeting and he nodded and wiped his brow.

“What are you doing?”

“You saved me a lot of hard work.” he said laying another beam. “Thought I’d return the favor.”

“You impressed him.” Bisca laughed. “Ain’t that easy to do neither.”

“We’re about done here.” the farmer coughed. “Then you can plant those seeds a I gave you. Just remember not to put them too close together.”

Kosmos nodded in shock.

“The work’s pretty much done.” Bisca said laying the last beam in place. “We left all the supplies you need over by the house.”

“Thank you.” Kosmos felt like the universe had to have some ulterior motive for her to have had such a good day. 

“No problem.” Bisca said with a smile. “What are guildmates for?”

“You expecting someone?” the farmer asked, nodding toward the house. Sure enough there was a wagon full of furniture pulling up.

Bisca laughed. “Mira send you to the Aldin’s shop?” she asked with humor. “Alice probably loaded you up pretty good then.”

“We’ll finish this up.” the farmer insisted. “Go tend to your house.”

Kosmos gave them another thanks before hustling to the front to greet the cart driver. Bisca hadn’t been wrong. The cart was full to the bursting with furniture. Some was simple. Other pieces seemed to be somewhat older and full of character. After checking he had the right place the driver and two other men began to unload the furniture and bring it into the house. They seemed to know where each piece was intended to go as they placed it in the right room. It didn’t take long before they finished unloading. The driver shook her hand , wished her a good evening, and they set off again. 

Kosmos checked back outside but Bisca and the farmer seemed to have finished as well. It was nearing evening too and Kosmos could feel the day’s activities wearing on her energy. She grabbed the clothes she’d gotten for herself and Harry and brought them to their respective rooms. 

The whole house looked inviting with warm earthen tones. Varying shades of green seemed to be sprinkled throughout the decor. Kosmos loved most of the pieces Alice had picked out for them. Only one thing seemed to be missing. Harry.

She stepped out onto the porch and plopped down on the top step to watch the setting sun. Beautiful pinks and oranges lit the sky. Kosmos felt her eyelids begin to drop.

Before she knew it she was being gently shook awake by a firm hand. Amused, green eye greeted her. 

“Not really the best place to take a nap you know.” 

“Welcome home.” she greeted sleepily. She had so much she wanted to show him but right now it seemed like a distant dream.

“It’s good to be back.” He said with a laugh. “Let’s get you inside.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short and sweet. Now you know what she was up to. Sneaky Kosmos. She just wanted to help. I’m exceptionally tired myself at the moment so I think I’ll say adieu. More fun to come next chapter. See you guys then!
> 
> ~Kanathia


	17. Making Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry makes more friends in the guild the only way adults can. Binge drinking.

Harry wiped the sweat from his brow and gave Kosmos a thumbs up. She had just finished watering the garden and encouraging the plants to grow. She’d told him that most fruit bearing plants didn’t do well when she forced them to grow quickly but encouraged growing sped up the process quite a bit. He finished nailing together a rickety looking fence around the garden and stepped back to admire his handiwork. It wasn’t anything impressive but he was proud of it. He thought for a moment before muttering a color change spell under his breath. The fence turned white and he grinned. 

“What do you think?” he asked, motioning to the newly erected fence with gusto.

Kosmos seemed to consider it for a long moment before making eye contact. “I think we should have hired someone to build the fence.” she said nonchalantly. Harry gave her a mock hurt look as a strong wind blew over one of his posts.

“Maybe after a few jobs we can get someone to build a better one.” he offered with a sigh. She nodded and headed for the back door to their house. He followed at a sedate pace, thinking back to just two weeks ago when he’d wandered back from his first job with the guild to find Kosmos sitting on their front porch leaning against the railing. He’d worried at first. She was looking worse for wear covered in dirt and sweat, but it looked like she’d just fallen asleep there waiting for him. So he’d gently shaken her awake. Little did he know that the girl had done a lot of work herself that day.

He’d entered to find a completely different place than he’d left that morning. Rich, dark wood furniture sat in all the rooms along with throw rugs in a deep green and silver. The place looked like a country house for a Slytherin but he couldn’t say he didn’t like it. The greens seemed warmer than they had within the castle’s cold walls. They seemed to radiate warmth and draw in the natural light. He’d stopped immediately after entering even as Kosmos stood rubbing her eyes by his side. He’d planned on doing some rough configuration until they could afford good furniture. Kosmos had only told him that the guild had helped out, but she refused to elaborate.

“I’m going to take a shower.” Kosmos called to him as he entered and he shouted back an affirmation before plopping into an easy chair. 

He had just been considering what they should do for the day when a knock sounded on the door. Curious, he made his way to it. “Erza?” 

“Good morning.” she said cordially, smile playing across her face pleasantly. “I hope the two of you have settled in nicely.”

“We have.” Harry motioned for her to come in and she did after a moment. She looked around with curiosity. “To what do I owe the honor?”

Erza gave one short bark of laughter. “Master Makarov wanted to see the two of you down at the guild hall. He asked if I would come and get you.”

“Ah, sure. Kosmos just went to shower, but we can head down as soon as she’s done.”

“Fantastic!” Erza boomed. She looked excited, which worried Harry a little. He’d only really seen the girl get amped up about battle. He hoped they weren’t planning on fighting anyone today. 

The water cut off in the other room.

“So tell me...”

Harry turned back from his momentary distraction.

“Your power seems very versatile. What can you do with it?”

Harry thought about that for a long moment. “It’s more of a ‘what can’t I do with it’ sort of scenario.” He offered. “It can do a lot of things.”

Erza seemed particularly interested now. 

“It can’t bring back the dead.” he started with the obvious. “Although there are things called inferi that are nasty little blighters. I’ve never been great at potions so even if I had the ingredients a lot of that would be out. I personally would never use the cruciatus or imperius, and the killing spell is...” he rambled until Erza put a gloved hand on his shoulder.

“It does indeed seem powerful.” she said nodding knowingly. “You may actually be the best candidate for our next S class promotion trials.”

“S class promotion trials?”

“We hold them once a year and everyone who is approved by the master competes to prove their worth and be promoted to S class. S class wizards can taken higher risk jobs that pay more and build a better reputation in Fiore.”

“I didn’t realize guilds were so organized.” He hummed in thought. “It s-”

He stopped as Kosmos opened the bathroom door. She wasn’t wearing her normal clothes. Instead she had on a pretty blue dress. He blinked a few times. She’d told him she had gotten new clothes but he hadn’t realized she’d picked out something like this. Instead of her normal cap she was wearing a matching headband. Harry had to admit she looked nice.

“Kosmos you... look nice.” he stammered out. 

“I’m not interrupting anything am I?”

Kosmos seemed to startle at Erza’s comment. She must not have noticed her before. 

“Regardless, it’s appropriate attire.” the red head claimed, grabbing Kosmos’ hand. “We should be on our way.”

Kosmos threw an alarmed look over her shoulder at Harry but he just laughed it off and followed. Erza marched them swiftly through the streets of town holding a one sided conversation about everything the town had to offer. Harry wasn’t sure if she was trying to give them a tour or this was just her way of trying to make friends. Either way they reached their destination quickly and Erza flung the doors wide with gusto to show a large banner strung across the beams of the great hall. ‘Welcome to Fairy Tail’ was spelled out in letters nearly as tall as Harry himself. 

The guild seemed to vibrate as a loud cheer went up from all their new guild mates. Mugs of various beverages were raised in their direction, and a huge cake rested near the bar. Kosmos’s eyes were blown wide and Harry laughed at the display as they were pulled forward into the guild hall.

They spent nearly an hour being ushered from table to table and slapped on the back. Harry was sure he met more people than actually belonged to the guild before he ended up staggering his way to the bar and taking a seat. To his right Makarov gave a throaty laugh.

“Enjoying the festivities?”

Harry gave him a grin. “If that’s what you’d call this madness.” 

Makarov surveyed the guild for a moment. “My children do tend to get a bit rambunctious when given the opportunity to celebrate anything.”

Harry scoffed good naturedly but offered the old man another smile. “I think it’s nice really.” he said watching Natsu tug Kosmos over to Wendy and Carla’s table. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen people so carefree.”

“You’re part of the guild now. Our happiness is your happiness.”

Harry thought on that statement for a moment. “Is that why I came home to a furnished house?”

Makarov laughed. “Don’t think it’s anything exceptional.” he said with humor. “We did the same for most of our members when they decided to stop living in dorms. We even supplied Natsu with furniture. He just decided to destroy it...”

Harry laughed. “That certainly sounds like him.”

“He shows promise.” Makarov tilted his head, looking in Natsu’s direction. “He just lacks restraint.”

Harry nodded knowingly. “He’ll gain it. He just needs time.” he said lightly. “Teenagers rarely have life figured out.”

Makarov snorted. “You sound like you’re speaking from experience.”

Harry turned amused eyes on the man. “More than I can really put into words.” he said, standing again. He let himself be pulled away by an over eager Lisanna.  
Harry spent the next few hours being passed copious amounts of food and alcohol. By the time the party was winding down he’d engaged himself in a drink off with a girl named Kana and was watching the world sway hazily before his eyes. Kana herself seemed to be on the verge of passing out and much to Harry’s shock the sun seemed to have set at some point. 

“I do believe you’ve both had enough.” Erza inserted herself between the two of them and forcibly removed the cup from Kana’s hand. Harry squinted, trying to clear up her blurry face but it was to no avail. She remained an animated blur.

“C’mon Erza, let the kid have fun fer once.” Kana slurred. “I’s not like we’re hurting anyone.”

“‘m not a kid.” Harry managed to eloquently throw back.

“See!” Kana exclaimed like that made all the difference.

Harry could feel Erza’s disapproving stare even through his drunken stupor. He hiccuped and gave her a grin.

“Regardless.” Erza easily pried the cup from Harry’s fingers as well. “Enough is enough.”

Harry leaned his head against the table and hazily watched Kana argue with Erza and ultimately lose. Their alcohol was confiscated but Harry knew in the back of his head that that was probably a good call on the guild’s part even if it did dampen the mood in the moment. 

“Come on buddy it’s getting late. We should get you home.”

Harry wasn’t particularly familiar with that voice, but large gentle hands guided him to unsteady feet. 

“This is not beautiful.” Kosmos commented lowly and she swung his left arm over her shoulders. He offered her a contented smile. “You smell like beer.”

“Drank a lot o’ beer.” he reasoned. “Makes sense.”

To his right someone snorted at the comment. They began to stumble their way from the guild hall in the general direction of their house. 

“I can handle him from here.” Kosmos shot at their escort. There was a booming laugh. 

“I don’t doubt it.” Harry turned in the speaker’s direction but couldn’t quite get their face to swim into view. He just saw a mountain. “But it wouldn’t be very manly of me to let you walk home without help.”

Kosmos scoffed and Harry laughed. What was he? Chopped liver? Then again. “I think ‘m gonna be sick.” Harry wrenched himself free of Kosmos’s support and made it to the side of the street before heaving up everything in his stomach.

“Not beautiful.” Harry distantly agreed with that assessment.

Their escort was laughing deeply, but approached Harry and offered him something to wipe his face. “Not many people can keep up with Kana. Erza stepped in more for your benefit than anything.”

Hand pressed to the side of his head Harry looked up and finally got the man’s face to focus. It was Lisanna and Mirajane’s brother, Elfman. The giant of a man was looking at him with no small amount of sympathy, but also a fair amount of respect. The giant of a man offered him a hand and Harry took it, returning to shaky feet. 

“It’s not too far of a walk. Will you be able to make it?”

Harry wanted to say yes, he’d be fine but his legs betrayed him by choosing that moment to collapse again. He let out an irritated huff as Elfman laughed and easily swung the smaller man onto his back. Harry clutched Elfman’s shoulders like a lifeline as his head swum. As the group resumed their walk the repetitive motion eased some of Harry’s nausea and he laid his head down. He listened to Elfman’s voice rumbling through his chest as he talked to Kosmos.

“You remind me of Hagrid.” Harry burst out, filter long forgotten with the aid of alcohol.

Whatever conversation the other two were having stopped momentarily as they processed what he’d said. 

“Who’s Hagrid?” Elfman asked.

“I don’t know.” Kosmos replied warily.

“He was a friend.” Harry said, a little too chipper. “Half giant. Nicest man I ever met. Terrible at cooking though.”

Elfman snorted and they resumed walking. 

“He never talks about his past.” Kosmos said lowly, obviously trying not to let Harry hear.

“I don’t have a lot of nice stories.” Harry replied anyway with a sigh. “It’s rather warm tonight.”

Elfman laughed, a deep genuinely warm sound. “Alcohol has a way of making even the tightest of lips looser.”

“I have a few though. A girl gave me cakes she said had fire whisky in them, but it was actually a love potion.” Harry chuckled. “Nasty surprise for Ron, but the look on his face was almost worth it.”

Kosmos gave him a worried glance.

“I wouldn’t take anything he says too seriously.” Elfman said with amusement in his voice. “Alcohol loosens lips, but it also makes people talk a lot of nonsense.”

Kosmos gave Harry one last glance before focusing on the road ahead of them. She made sure to coax any roots out of Elfman’s path once they moved off the paved road so that the large man didn’t trip in the darkness. In what felt like no time at all they stumbled up to their new home and Elfman let out a low whistle.

“You guys really fixed the old place up, huh?”

Kosmos nodded enthusiastically. She glanced over at the man and noticed a wistful look on his face. Before she could ask anything he started forward and entered the house. He’d already found Harry’s room and laid the wizard out on his bed by the time she walked in. 

“Thank you for the help.” she nodded in Harry’s direction. She could hear the wizard snoring very lightly from the other room.

“It wouldn’t have been very manly of me to let you try to do it yourself.” he said with a bellowing laugh.

She gave him an indulgent smile and walked him to the door. After an assurance that if they needed any help Elfman was the man to turn to the burly man ducked through the door frame and an exhausted Kosmos showed herself to her room. It wasn’t long before she wearily laid her head on her pillow and fell into a restful sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxx

Harry woke the following morning with one hell of a hang over. He groaned and tried not vomit at the taste of bile and stale alcohol in his mouth. He wished he’d had the mind to brush his teeth before passing out last night. He peeled his eyes open to survey his room, curious what had woken him. He’d been fast asleep surely. He didn’t feel like his mind had woken on its own. A loud crash sounded from the living area and Harry felt like his head would split in two. Still, he forced down his nausea and stumbled his way to the door.

In the living room Natsu and Happy we’re bouncing about as Kosmos scolded them. The whole scene seemed surreal. One of their side tables laid in ruins which seemed to have been the source of the mysterious crash. How it had happened was another mystery altogether.

“What are you two doing here so early?” Harry asked, wincing at the sound of his own voice. 

The two perked up and happily leapt in Harry’s direction, obviously eager to put space between themselves and the angry pink haired woman. “Erza sent us.” Happy supplied.

Harry raised an eyebrow. Surely the guild didn’t mean to give them a second welcoming party. He’d have to decline. He was still recovering from the first. 

“Erza wants us to go on a job.” Natsu elaborated holding out a flier. 

“That doesn’t mean you get to break into our house and destroy things!” Kosmos fumed.

“It’s just a table!” Natsu, rather stupidly, argued. “I break those all the time.”

Harry sent a simple reparo at the broken table and surveyed the poster as Kosmos glared daggers. “S class. I thought you had to pass some sort of exam to take these jobs.”

“Not if an S class wizard takes the job.” Happy clarified.

Harry read the request and couldn’t say he wasn’t interested, but he didn’t wish he knew how to make pepper up potions. “When are we leaving?”

XXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Long time no see! I'm moving soon and hopefully after the long distance relocation I'll be able to write a bit more. Hopefully. -.-;
> 
> Well, Til next time!
> 
> ~Kanathia

**Author's Note:**

> Look for more as I start to transfer over. Still working out the tagging feature. That's all for now though.
> 
> ~Kanathia


End file.
